VANCOUVER – A new study from the Institute for Research on Public Policy says Canadian cities should discontinue the practice of reducing user fees and property taxes for seniors.
This study used Ontario as a case study to show that all services should be financed the same way, including those for seniors.
“Seniors’ discounts on services and property taxes are not equitable and should be abandoned,” said author Harry Kitchen in a release. “They were established at a time when a high percentage of older residents were living in poverty, but poverty rates for seniors have decreased considerably compared with those in the rest of the population.”
“Reducing municipalities’ reliance on property taxes would also ease the relatively heavier tax burden on all low-income individuals, including seniors in need.”
B.C.’s Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie did not agree with the study and said it is important for everyone to remember that seniors are disproportionately low income. “So the median income for people over the age of 65 in B.C. is about $24,000 a year. Compared to about $46,000 a year for people aged 35 to 44. So there really is a need, an economic need still, among seniors.”
Mackenzie added that if discounts for seniors were taken away, she thinks the impact would be significant. “If you’re having to pay $4.50 for your bus fare, instead of $2.50, or you would presumably get a bus pass, a discounted bus pass, that could mean the difference between ‘I’m going to go somewhere today and take the bus’ or not,” she said.
“We forget that it’s easy to dismiss these small costs when your income is $50,000, $60,000 or $70,000. But when your income is very limited, and you also have to remember that seniors’ incomes are not going to change or go up.”
Lorraine Logan, president of the Council of Senior Citizens’ Organizations of BC (COSCO), said in her opinion the study points to a larger problem of unfair taxation of all residents of B.C. “I really have some real concerns about targeting the most vulnerable,” she said. “When you’re getting to the lower income areas, and I believe there’s about 52 per cent of seniors here in our own province that make less than $17,000 a year, I would suggest that to help them, we have to maintain what we have.”
BC Ferries has already changed their seniors’ rate. It used to be free for seniors to ride the ferries from Monday to Thursday but they now have to pay half the price of the original ticket cost.
“There’s so many people that rely on the lower rates to get by that if all of a sudden you changed all of that, it would just be devastating, absolutely devastating,” said Logan.
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