Rida Rahman - The Eastern Eggplant After a Tweet was released on Twitter by The Eastern Eggplant voicing the concerns of the Canadian Labour Congress saying “The Canadian Tax Payers Federation does not understand the concept of being an interest group, speaking out about their own views during discussions between ministers,” The Eastern Eggplant received a considerable amount of backlash from the Canadian Tax Payers Federation, ultimately leading to an interview which raised more questions than answers.
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Teresa Zhang - The Eastern Eggplant Today in finance, middle-class tax cuts were discussed. The proposed lowering of middle class taxes from 22% to 20.5%, and raising the taxes on people earning above $200,000 from 31% to 33%, was divisive. The Northwest Territories and Quebec were in favour of lowering middle class taxes, and when the Federal government asked whether or not anyone disagreed, no one spoke up. They then noticed that Ontario was missing, and Quebec joked “That’s why no one is disagreeing.”
Nicole Baltag - The Eastern Eggplant During the first set of the finance committee meetings at Fed Prov, the federal government had a difficult time keeping the room under wraps during only the first three issues discussed. This is primarily due to off topic debate. Provinces, in specific, Ontario who caught themselves in a heated, yet irrelevant argument. In a discussion of the child tax benefit, Ontario somehow took it upon them to bring up energy transportation, and when asked for context, said, “we can talk about whatever we want to talk about.”
While the Federal Government potentially took that as Ontario’s first strike, they seemed to lose it nearing the second. During the discussion pertaining to affordable housing, Ontario assumed it would be sensical to argue that it’s more important to them that they give their citizens apartment as opposed to houses. The Federal Government responded with: “No, we want to be providing housing, whether that be houses or apartments. It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that we meet the needs of all Canadians.” It seemed to be something they had to reiterate a few times. Best of luck to the Federal Government, truly. And hopefully, the Ontario finance representative will be able to take future topics, and stay on task and away from drawing any more negative attention to themselves. Rida Rahman - The Eastern Eggplant Discussions about making housing more affordable for Canadians began with a questionable statement from Ontario, who said that they “don’t want to be giving people houses. [They] want to be giving them apartments,” which was met by the frustrated Federal Government, retaliated with “No, we want to be providing housing, whether that be houses or apartments. It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that we meet the needs of all Canadians.”
Nicole Baltag - The Eastern Eggplant The first topic went over in the finance committee meetings was the Canadian child tax benefit. Manitoba had quite a lot to say, perhaps too much as at a point, very early on, they started tripping over their own claims. Saying “it’s tough” in concerns of struggling families who can barely afford their own children. Instead of outright providing solutions for these families, Manitoba simply directed them to speak to their local MPPs, showing absolutely no empathy.
Nicole Baltag - The Eastern Eggplant This morning at FedProv, there was a good turnout in audience. We had very impressive opening speeches from guest speakers. Once the ministers began their introductions, all seemed to have an interesting, engaging outlook. Ontario kicked it off quite nicely, stating all their stances within the topics very clearly. Shortly after Ontario’s very concise liberal points which come up with a majority of agreement, Quebec stumbled in quite roughly in a primarily French introduction. With no regard to a bilingual greeting, Quebec only cared to switch to English much too further on in their speech, unlike other provinces who decided to show off their bilingualism. Quebec typically didn’t care to acknowledge their anglophone community and instead focus in on preserving their French culture, refusing to cooperate until all supreme courts are bilingual. Although, I’m almost sure that had to be a Freudian Slip, and what Quebec really meant to say was, “until all supreme courts are fully francophone”. Another significant introductory speech came from New Brunswick who really did try with a French introduction, however, had their speaking skills backfire on them completely. Manitoba came in strong, well that is, strong and selfish. Just like Nova Scotia, Manitoba had quite the ego. Finding themselves such vital provinces and failing to find any common ground with the federal government. British Columbia took a brave approach, not taking a single glance at their notes and delivering a speech with the utmost confidence. However, they seemed to simply just “support” everything and lack emotion and frankly, devotion, in what they were saying at all.
Nicole Baltag - The Eastern Eggplant To cut or not to cut? That is the question. It’s evident that most Canadian citizens are totally in the dark about the ethics and benefits of tax cuts specific to the middle class. The government, and in specific, our Prime Minister has spoken out about an existing seven percent tax cut to the middle class (which consists of those earning $45,000-$90,000 per year). Several Provinces have different takes on this.
Teresa Zhang - The Eastern Eggplant The teacher and early childhood supply tax benefit helps teachers afford school supplies, via a refundable tax credit calculated as 15% of up to $1,000 in eligible expenses per year, for a maximum of $150 per year. Eligible expenses include consumable goods such as stationary, art supplies, paper, items for science experiments, as well as durable goods such as books, games, containers, and educational software. It should be noted that the plan has already been put into effect- why was it put in as a topic? This Fed Prov is a blast from the past, what with all the old topics.
The Minister of Finance is strongly supportive of the tax benefit, saying that educators spend much of their own money to help their students learn. They have proposed to raise the benefit from 15% to 20%. Teresa Zhang - The Eastern Eggplant Today at the 2018 Fed Prov Finance meetings, Ontario took centre stage throughout meetings on the School Supply Tax Benefit and on Affordable Housing.
Ontario railed against increasing the tax benefit from 15% to 20%- a 50$ difference for every teacher that spends the full 1000$. They thought that too much money was already spent on schools, and that “We don’t need to go all in and start reimbursing [teachers] for every little thing.” They added that there should be different benefits for different products, which the Federal government refuted, saying that the logistics of figuring out the different benefit would be inefficient and costly. Ontario was joined in their disapproval of the increase by Nunavut, British Columbia, and the Canadian Taxpayers interest group, who wondered where the money would be coming from. On the other side of the conversation, Saskatchewan was strongly supportive of the increase in money given back. They were incredibly passionate in their support of the teachers, and told Ontario, “They shouldn’t have to use their own money. It sucks that they have to but those are just the rules. So the least we can do is reimburse them,” in response to Ontario, after they said that teachers didn’t have to use their money to buy school supplies. Nicole Baltag - The Eastern Eggplant The school supply benefit discussion went over quite rather thought-provoking. Unsurprisingly, it was divided Ontario against everyone once again. Although perhaps you would scratch that “everyone” as the North West Territories couldn’t have bothered to make it in order to stand their ground. Ontario had very strong opinions about what teachers really deserve. While other provinces and territories such as British Columbia, Yukon, and Saskatchewan, did acknowledge they haven’t been putting their best foot forward when it came to supplying their teachers and students. They had the common decency to show some remorse. Saskatchewan said, “They shouldn’t have to use their own money. It sucks that they have to, but those are just the rules. So the least we can do is reimburse them.” Ontario kept taking it upon them to lash out, continuously claiming that way too much money is spent on schools already, and thinking that “teachers get enough as it is.”
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