'When you see your grandma coming through the door, your great-aunt, that hits home and you realize everybody is affected,' the executive director of the West Island Mission said.
The affordability crisis is a major crisis, and we need to do whatever we can to get this under control.
At the same time, I literally have the same question that’s in the title. She says she only makes $1,200/mo. Assuming that’s true, the OAS estimator (also assuming she’s single) says she should be getting $1,013.77 from OAS and GIS alone. I don’t live in Quebec, so i don’t know a lot about QPP, but that should be more than $200/mo if she worked most of her life. And if she’s making that little, she shouldn’t have any tax deducted at source, so that shouldn’t reduce her income.
That’s the problem with using one person as the hook for a news story. Readers focus on the one person’s story.
We don’t know a lot about her circumstances. Maybe she had a shitty time during her earning years. Maybe she made some bad choices. Maybe she isn’t maximizing her income now.
But prices for rent, food, and necessities are spiking. People who fall into the categories above are going to have a bad time. If we don’t get living costs under control larger and larger segments of the population are going to get screwed.
I totally agree with what you say. At the same time, it’s often easier for the generally public to see an issue through an individual case rather than numbers and statistics. That’s why many movements have used vetted individuals, probably the most famous being Rosa Parks for the Civil Rights Movement in the States.
That’s why many movements have used vetted individuals, probably the most famous being Rosa Parks for the Civil Rights Movement in the States.
Agreed. I’m kind of amazed that Canada doesn’t have a national group organizing about cost of living issues. I was really sad when the Reddit group organizing for housing costs imploded.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !canada@lemmy.ca
The affordability crisis is a major crisis, and we need to do whatever we can to get this under control.
At the same time, I literally have the same question that’s in the title. She says she only makes $1,200/mo. Assuming that’s true, the OAS estimator (also assuming she’s single) says she should be getting $1,013.77 from OAS and GIS alone. I don’t live in Quebec, so i don’t know a lot about QPP, but that should be more than $200/mo if she worked most of her life. And if she’s making that little, she shouldn’t have any tax deducted at source, so that shouldn’t reduce her income.
That’s the problem with using one person as the hook for a news story. Readers focus on the one person’s story.
We don’t know a lot about her circumstances. Maybe she had a shitty time during her earning years. Maybe she made some bad choices. Maybe she isn’t maximizing her income now.
But prices for rent, food, and necessities are spiking. People who fall into the categories above are going to have a bad time. If we don’t get living costs under control larger and larger segments of the population are going to get screwed.
I totally agree with what you say. At the same time, it’s often easier for the generally public to see an issue through an individual case rather than numbers and statistics. That’s why many movements have used vetted individuals, probably the most famous being Rosa Parks for the Civil Rights Movement in the States.
Agreed. I’m kind of amazed that Canada doesn’t have a national group organizing about cost of living issues. I was really sad when the Reddit group organizing for housing costs imploded.