Canadian Election Thread

[Padraig]

" Property tax at around 6%, which varies from one Province to another "

Local municipal property taxes in Ontario are based on an updated every few years open market valuation - BUT it is much, much lower than 6%. On a
$200,000. house it's about $2500 to $3000 annually.

[coldwar]

Originally Posted by Padraig

"In Canada, your visit to the Doctor and your hospitalization is paid for by the government. However, the prescription your Doctor gives you is not paid for. You either have to use Health Insurance if you're lucky enough to have it, or right out of your pocket for prescriptions."

Just to clarify this, prescriptions for those 65 years and older are based on an annual income scale (Means test), so the cost of prescriptions can be as low as $2 per prescription, or I believe a flat $6 each after the first $100 annual deductible. I'm in the $2 bracket, with no deductible.

That's not the way it is here (Atlantic region). When my mother turned 65, she had to get Senior's Blue Cross with a monthly premium.

[Zeus]

Best part of a Canadian politics thread?

How polite we all are to each other.

BHD, KurtVining, you taking notes?

[oasis100]

Originally Posted by coldwar

I assume you mean in Canada. The consumer pays, of course- through taxation. I pay for my own, plus a bit for every other Canadian.

The middle class Canadian tax picture looks something like this:
- One- third of your earned salary is taken right off the top
- For sales tax, it is 15% nationally on everything you buy except essential food items. Seeing as you spend most of what you earn, this brings the tax-take up to 48%
- Property tax at around 6%, which varies from one Province to another
- Government Pension Plan take is around 3% of your salary.
- Unemployment Insurance also around 3%
- Gasoline tax is ~ $1.00 per U.S. gallon
- There are additional heavy taxes on tobacco and alcohol. I don't know what they are, but one bottle of local Canadian beer costs the equivalent of US$1.95. How much is a beer in the States?

A few years back, one of our think tanks was doing an annual calculation of "tax freedom day", which meant on what day of the year our earned money stops going to the government and starts being our own. At the time, it was always around mid- July. Overall, our tax take is over 50%.

So what do we get back?

- semi-universal health care. Yes, a lot of essential things are paid in full with no co-pays, but a lot of other things are not paid, most notably prescriptions, dental and eye-glasses.
- universal grade 1 to 12 and in some provinces k to 12 education
- university subsidies that are shrinking dramatically
- generaly good roads and infrastructure coast to coast across the southern girth of the country, including money transferred back from national and provincial taxes for our cities
- a very bad "social safety net". If you suddenly become unemployed and have no savings of your own, the government will give you around 50% of what you were making for 6 to 9 months (I think). If you have your own resources, they give nothing. Welfare for a single employable person is only $300 / month (it varies by Province). If a person is unemployable (disability), it is $500. We are NOT the welfare state everybody thinks we are.
- The Canada Pension Plan, when you turn 65, assuming you were working all your life, pays you about 25% of what you would have been earning.


Dave

Sounds like a good trade off in my mind.

[oasis100]

Originally Posted by Padraig

" Property tax at around 6%, which varies from one Province to another "

Local municipal property taxes in Ontario are based on an updated every few years open market valuation - BUT it is much, much lower than 6%. On a
$200,000. house it's about $2500 to $3000 annually.

Yea that actually sounds about right. I'm pretty sure my folks aren't paying that much, our house is worth 400k. I think property tax is about 2500.

[coldwar]

Originally Posted by Zeus

Best part of a Canadian politics thread?

How polite we all are to each other.

BHD, KurtVining, you taking notes?

Hey, I was thinking the same. There may be two factors- it's about Canada, and bonehead isn't here.

[OMEGAMAN]

I like the BHD but am glad that this thread has'nt turned into a liberal bashing thread. I have too many questions too have this thread hijacked.

[OMEGAMAN]

Here's a question for you! I have an investment in Canada I would like to cash out, and i was told by my mother that there is a 1 time avoidance of capital gains in canada. It almost seems too far fetched to be real but I remeber when ICBC gave us the 1 free accident for good drivers instead of lowering insurance rates. ICBC stands for insurance corporation of british columbia. The government provides everything!

[Zeus]

Here you go omega...your mother may be partially correct.

http://www.fin.gc.ca/toce/2002/cantaxadv_e.html

[Zeus]

Originally Posted by oasis100

Yea that actually sounds about right. I'm pretty sure my folks aren't paying that much, our house is worth 400k. I think property tax is about 2500.

Man, that's cheap. My home is worth approx. $450-475K and property tax is $6K. Still, that's only 1.26%.

[Padraig]

Originally Posted by coldwar

That's not the way it is here (Atlantic region). When my mother turned 65, she had to get Senior's Blue Cross with a monthly premium.

Sorry, I omitted to state that I was referring to the Province of Ontario.

[SHYNE]

I hope we all know how damn lucky we have it.

My mother is also an MD (University of Western Ontario) and has a private practice in child psychiatry (her paycheques come from OHIP).

Many of her patients are children from low income families who have the stresses taken out on them. There could be a strong case made for a correlation between lower levels of education and social disorders. My mother is a pyschiatrist because she loves to help people.

She is routinely called up by recruiters on behalf of private hospitals and clinics in the United States. She has even taken trips down to look at some of the positions offered (brand new car as a signing bonus is typical).

I remember once when I was in highschool that she went down to the Dallas Ft. Worth area of Texas and had a look around at some hospital down there.
When she arrived back I asked her what she thought of the place (I was also concerned as I did not want to leave Canada). Her response was all of one world. Scary.

She was shown the neighbourhood were many of the doctors lived. It was a gated community with ARMED security forces. The high school I would have attended was also private.

The kind of 'piss on you as long as I'm okay' mentality was chilling to her.

It appears you Yankees are indeed screwed

[kerry]

How does your social system work in regards to immigrants? My wife is a Canadian but has not lived or worked there since 1981. If we emigrated late would we both have access to social benefits.
We loved living in Toronto in the late 70's but also like BC. It's quite tempting at times.

[oasis100]

Originally Posted by SHYNE

I remember once when I was in highschool that she went down to the Dallas Ft. Worth area of Texas and had a look around at some hospital down there.
When she arrived back I asked her what she thought of the place (I was also concerned as I did not want to leave Canada). Her response was all of one world. Scary.

She was shown the neighbourhood were many of the doctors lived. It was a gated community with ARMED security forces. The high school I would have attended was also private.

The kind of 'piss on you as long as I'm okay' mentality was chilling to her.

Gated communities? Damn.
What's with the ability for communities to annex themselves and create their own local governments?

[420SEL]

Kerry,

Depending on the province there is generally a waiting period for provincial health benefits, even if you were a citizen moving back from another country. Its about six months.