Avalon Chapter Pre-Budget Submission

15. Deli Food Taxation: remove the PST on deli foods. As people age, many find recipes become harder and the result is that interest in cooking at home wanes. Supermarket delis now offer healthier food choices, as does some restaurants. However, the additional thirteen percent tax levied on deli foods is a disincentive to older Canadians and many have indicated that they refuse to purchase the more nutritional foods because of this unfair tax.

Summary:

In CARP’s view, none of the above recommendations requires significant expenditure of public funds but all require the investment of political capital directed towards a growing segment of our provincial population. These are people who have spent their lives contributing to the economy; and the least we can do is contribute to their well being when they most need it.

In summary, a healthy aging population requires:

(1) adequate financial security. This includes freedom from excessive tax burdens and restrictions, freedom from predatory financial practices and consumer fraud, adequate guaranteed income support programs and equitable access to pension and other retirement savings vehicles.

(2) adequate healthcare. This includes equitable and timely access to high quality health, uniform and affordable access to medicines and medical devices, equitable and timely access to ageing at home options, adequate support and legal rights for caregivers and easy access to dependable information and resources for healthy living.

(3) freedom from age discrimination. This includes the right to continue working, driving and living independently, freedom from ageist and other stereotypes in advertising and the media, Freedom from elder abuse.

Part 2

Then issues presented in this part are mainly in the federal or federal-provincial sphere. We believe that our provincial representatives have the responsibility to advocate such issues with their federal counterparts whenever the opportunity arises and we are confident that such responsibility is taken seriously.

Aging Canadians and Poverty:

What do we mean by Poverty? According to Statistics Canada “measures of ‘low income’ are intended to identify individuals and families who are substantially worse off than others in the population.” (1) But the “low-income cut off” (LICO) line is a measure of income not poverty.

To fully understand what it means to be poor, the real needs and expenditures of the targeted groups must be factored in. Drug costs may be more important to seniors while minimum wage or school costs may matter more to young families.

The myth that poverty among aging Canadians has almost been eradicated is being perpetuated by governments, media and segments of the general public, based on Statistics Canada’s assertion that only 6.1% of seniors are living with low income. Even if this statistic were accurate, it would still represent over 268,000 seniors.

In reality, the 36% of seniors (over 1.6 million) who are receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) are also living in poverty. The average CPP [$5,777.52,] plus Old Age Security (OAS) [$6,028] and GIS [$4,727.96] bring the total income of single low income seniors to $16,533.48, which is below the LICO of $17,957 (for communities of 500,000 and over) by $1,423.52.