2010 Budget Choices: Same old Conservative thinking or Jack Layton’s new ideas for Canada’s seniors

The next federal budget will make important choices. The Conservatives are promising to “stay the course,” with the same old idea: keep cutting corporate taxes that will lead Canada into even deeper deficits. Jack Layton’s choice is different. New Democrats have new ideas to help lift Canada’s seniors out of poverty with improvements to the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).

The facts about seniors’ poverty

• After 20 years of reductions, the rate of seniors living in poverty doubled from three percent in the mid-1990s to six percent in the mid-2000s. (Conference Board of Canada, 17 September 2009)
• The maximum GIS benefit – intended for the lowest-income seniors - was approximately $650 a month in 2009 – only $50 more than it was in 2005.
• The maximum annual Old Age Security and GIS benefits are approximately $14,000, which is $4,000 below the poverty line in most cities.

The facts about what corporate handouts are costing Canada’s treasury

• Harper’s tax handouts to corporations cost Canada $5.3 billion last year and will cost an estimated $12 billion this year.
• The Parliamentary Budget Office estimates a $19 billion structural deficit in three years. $15 billion of that deficit will be the cost of corporate tax cuts.
• Since Liberal and Conservative governments started cutting corporate taxes 10 years ago, individuals are carrying 61 percent of the cost of government programs, while corporations now pay only 15 percent.

Stephen Harper’s choice: more of the same corporate handouts. Jack Layton’s choice: new ideas to improve retirement security.