Letter: Serious concern with COVID-19 ‘emergency funding’
By Letters to the editor
To The Editor.
Somebody needs to explain just how (BC Premier John) Horgan possibly can justify taking our hard-earned tax dollars and give it to families with annual incomes up to 175,000 dollars, and individuals earning up to 67,500 dollars, insisting they desperately need ‘emergency funding’.
There is no doubt a lot of people who suddenly lost their incomes are in dire straits without financial support from provincial and federal governments, but families with those kinds of incomes are not in dire straits.
That 67,500 is about $33.75 an hour in an average work-year of 2,000 hours.
Surviving spouses or common-law partners today are living on CPP, OAC and income supplements that are less than half of that.
A more realistic cap for a single person in BC would be closer to 30,000 and 60,000 for families, to be able to pay for essentials like food, clothing, and shelter, keeping in mind this is also ‘supplementary emergency funding’ for working adults who also qualified for the federal Canada Emergency Relief Benefits.
At a time when the municipal, provincial, and federal treasuries are posting massive multi-billion-dollar deficits, Horgan’s pay-outs without first conducting any kind of a means test are irrational and irresponsible.
Andy Thomsen, Kelowna, BC
