A
Submission to the Government of Canada on the Subject of Poverty Reduction and
Housing
Louis
Shalako
Copyright
2017 Louis Shalako and Long Cool One Books
Design: J. Thornton
ISBN 978-1-988621-05-0
The
following is a work of non-fiction. Any resemblance to any person living or
deceased, or to any places or events, is purely coincidental. Names have been
withheld. Facts and incidents are the product of the author’s research.
Table of Contents
A
Submission to the Government of Canada on the Subject of Poverty Reduction and
Housing
Louis
Shalako
No one is more qualified than I am to consult with
this government on the subject of poverty reduction. A good poverty-reduction
plan demands good information.
I’ve been on ODSP, a provincial disability pension,
for roughly twenty-two years. Last year, I received $13,332.00 in provincial
disability benefits. (T-5007)
According to the landlord’s annual statement, in 2016
I paid $9,441.00 in rent. That is 70.1 % of my disability income, rounded off
to the tenth. I do operate a small business, and I do work part-time. This
income is minimal, and falls well below the federal basic personal exemption,
and social assistance isn’t taxable. In Ontario, if you earn above $200.00 a
month, on ODSP, they’re clawing back fifty cents on the dollar. Clients can
claim $0.18 per kilometre for mileage/deduction from income when staff are getting more like $0.50 per
kilometre. This might be considered a disincentive to work, but it also
represents a pretty big unofficial tax rate, one far higher than that paid by
many Canadians at much higher income levels. Bear in mind that ODSP guidelines
for business and employment don’t necessarily recognize the same business or
employment deductions as the Canada Revenue Agency accepts as a matter of
course. Simply put, it is difficult to increase one’s income on this particular
provincial disability pension.
This government’s own figures and other industry
experts would suggest that anyone paying much over one-third or 33 % of their
income in housing costs is essentially paying too much for their housing.
I know the members will be reading my submission with
great interest, and I’m sure the 12.6 % of Canadians who suffer from some form
of disability will thank you for listening.
You have to understand, ladies and gentlemen, that the
disabled get a raise of one or one and a half percent a year, and the landlord
jacks the rent two percent, which eats into a pension which is steadily being
eroded by an inflation rate which is always
higher than two percent.
Official figures for inflation leave out food and
fuel, which are considered ‘volatile’. After food and fuel, what do low-income
Canadians buy? They pay rent or other housing costs.
This is when a raise is not really a raise, isn’t it.
Trust me, we can do the math. At some point, the landlord eats up all your
cheque and prices you out of the market, which ultimately is not in their
interest either. As long as the landlord is allowed to keep chipping away at
those pensions, I reckon they’ll keep doing it. I pay the rent, and line up at
food banks. It’s been months since I did a laundry. I cut my own hair—I never
go anywhere, but the landlord always gets their money.
The disabled, the mentally ill, retired Canadians,
find it difficult to move on short notice, now that the Province of Ontario has
done away with the Moving Benefit. We are hostages to the profitability of our
landlords and we don’t seem to get much respect for it.
They got us between a rock and a hard place, ladies
and gentlemen.
Landlords don’t run for
election, but this government has little choice but to do so.
The fact that we have
food banks excuses a lot of the sins of the bourgeoisie. Because no one is
going to starve to death if we do not act.
(My own personal opinion
is that nothing will ever change, and things
will only get worse, never better. This is based on experience and not just
rhetoric.)
Naturally, I understand
that this concept might be of some inconvenience to a few folks who have built
fifty million dollar companies on the strength of packing their lower-income
level buildings with the disabled, the mentally ill, single moms and the elderly.
Anyone with a government cheque rolling in makes a good tenant, and a lot of
them really can’t articulate their needs, can they? They’re too shy, too
demoralized. They’ve bought into the social stigma. Too many Canadians are
prepared to let their betters do all
the thinking.
Consider me obtuse if you will.
Hence my present duty.
Stuff like that.
Back to the landlord.
...and consequently,
relying on all those government cheques rolling in, to build up their own wealth, each and every month, thereby taking
75 % of the income of a disabled person, for example. So this and the
provincial government don’t have a problem helping people build up their
wealth—as long as it’s the right sort of people…right?
It’s pretty obvious that
my disability pension isn’t going up six or seven hundred dollars a month
anytime soon. That is a self-evident truth and there is no disputing it. Is
that going to build up my wealth? Probably not, but it might alleviate some fucking suffering.
No, ladies and gentlemen,
it’s not going to build up my wealth, but every stinking penny would be going
straight back into the local economy, where it might generate as much as $1.78
in further economic spin-off benefits. You know, like food stamps (SNAP) south
of the border. This has been borne out by study after study. Studies are the
most useless, and therefore one of the most lucrative things you can do. Not
that anyone ever listens, but the market is apparently insatiable. Too bad no
one ever listens, eh. That must be terribly disappointing, but you got your
money so oh, well.
There are many
middle-class Canadians whose entire working lives will be consumed in the work
of studying so very many things, studies which will never be used.
Such futility is not
unknown in the lives of the poor, either.
One of my first
suggestions in addressing the challenge (or opportunity) of low pensions and
high rents would be a five-year moratorium on rent increases. This proposal
includes those rent increases that fall below present thresholds, for example
here in Ontario, any rent increase below two percent does not require review by
any relevant body. The tendency here is for the typical corporate property
management company to increase the rent every year, regardless of any true
need, and in the absence of any major upgrades outside of regular, routine
replacement programs due to wear and tear.
This represents corporate
welfare in its most insidious form, for it actually carries out the government’s
own program—for a price, namely, relatively
affordable housing for great numbers of low-income Canadians. All of this,
without the added expense on the part of government of actually building and
maintaining significant public housing resources, which have been neglected for
decades following the federal government’s ‘downloading’ program.
The private
sector gets the profits, the government of the day gets the social, economic
and political liabilities. The very fact that this government is consulting on
issues of poverty and housing implies some interest or responsibility in this
area.
***
I believe it was a
previous government who purchased $250 Million in ‘bad debt’ in order to shore
up Canadian banks—who allegedly were never in any real danger of failure. A bad
case of too big to fail. Interestingly, that particular web-page of the Bank of
Canada is remarkably hard to find these days.
What happened there, eh?
You’re pretty good about helping
business, right?
Perhaps we are too small
to worry about, or even consider.
No one has any real desire or incentive to inquire
into the moral implications of this long-standing arrangement. However, the
service for regular Canadians might be improved.
If you really wanted to. If there was the will.
What’s really strange here at the provincial level is
that my electricity is included in the rent—and for whatever reason, the
provincial electricity rebate/subsidy doesn’t apply to me. I don’t fit into any
category on the website where one applies for this provincial benefit, which
theoretically would provide me with a monthly $30.00 to $50.00 in relief. My
big question here, is the landlord
getting my electricity rebate, and if so, why? And my second question would be,
why no reduction in my rent, in view of this subsidy to the landlord, a man who
could afford to give $1.2 Million to the Sarnia Foundation.
(A philanthropist is someone who knows damn well he didn’t pay enough in taxes.)
Perhaps the federal government might discuss this
unfortunate situation with the government of the Province of Ontario.
When it comes to disability tax credits at the federal
level, and there are all kinds of scab outfits claiming to help people get
these benefits, for some kind of fee or percentage, a person can’t take
advantage of the benefits if they don’t achieve a taxable income in the first
place.
Yet some of these tax credits sound pretty impressive,
e.g., fifteen grand here and thirty grand there. Mostly, it’s feel-good
propaganda, in other words bullshit. (http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/disability/
) I’m sure this is all very useful for the average rich disabled person.
Them guys are pretty thin on the ground around here,
and everywhere else, too. There must be a few people who are born rich and
disabled. There’s really not too many other ways to get there, is there? Or
even to have a decent life, which is
really all most Canadians can
realistically hope for.
This government might consider a renewed commitment to
creating and maintaining, over the longer term, employment incentives for the
employment of disabled people (whether in the form of cash or various tax
incentives) for employers, (hell,
maybe even the disabled employee), as well as for the clients of various
federal and provincial social programs.
With all due respect to this government, one more
mental health/addictions outreach program, funded for six months and with short-term,
contract labour doesn’t do much to address the problem of poverty amongst this
segment of the population. When people on ODSP are living 35-40 % below the
poverty line and single moms and infants on welfare far below that, there are
better ways to address these inequities, and make a real impact on exactly the
same issues.
All it requires is a minor paradigm shift, to another way of
thinking about the same problem.
***
Here’s a funny thing.
If a person on fucking disability can pay $9,441.00
dollars in rent in a year, they can afford a small house, (in certain markets).
The big hurdle is financing—some kind of credible down payment and then a
mortgage, which is problematic when someone’s on ODSP at a rate of about
$13,500 a year; including some small business and employment income. At least
you’re building equity, and you don’t have someone on the other side of a very
thin wall at both ends of the apartment. That’s not
to say you won’t have an asshole as a neighbour because that is very likely to
be the case. I calculated a $50,000 mortgage with ten percent down at around
$228.00/month at the current rate, which is at a historic low. Money is cheap,
right now. What we need is a plan, one that is long term and not something to
be done on impulse. Once certain resources are in place, it is possible to
strike when the iron is hot.
Otherwise it’s a big scramble, followed by the
inevitable disappointment when you couldn’t move fast enough. ODSP clients can have up to $7,000.00 in the bank, which
very few of us do. We can also receive gifts, which happens sometimes. Unfortunately,
we are not all created equal in terms of our parents, friends and relatives. So,
how do you save that seven grand...??? Or earn it.
Or convince someone to
give it as a gift. The odds are, I will never own a home again.
Yet I had one at one
time.
***
This applies to the
smaller markets, where perhaps meaningful stimulus has been neglected due to
lack of ideas as much as anything else. The provincial government,
incidentally, has been consulting on the subject of rural poverty. The federal
government might just want to tuck that into the back of its collective mind as
homes in the smaller centres are far more affordable than the Toronto or Ottawa
markets.
Here’s another thing. One
more nutritionist on the front page of the local paper, a big girl who likes to
cook and only recently off of welfare or disability, on a six-month contract
and a government grant, telling poor people how to make better nutritional
choices when they’re lining up at food banks and taking whatever salt-laden,
prepared foods of dubious nutritional value, three years past the expiry date
(whatever they can get, in other words), would appear to be a waste of public
resources, although it does generate false optimism in the minds of anyone not
familiar with the realities on the ground and on the front lines of social
policy.
What would happen to the
economy if this government simply reduced the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax), the
combined rates of seven and eight percent currently running at 13 % here in
Ontario? All Canadians, at all income levels, would have a significant increase
in discretionary spending dollars. Not everyone has the same need, but it is at
least across the board, something which virtually everyone could and would
support.
No one likes paying
taxes, the funny thing is, the people in the best position to pay hate it the
most, perhaps because they aren’t receiving the same perceived value from their
contribution.
Poor people understand
that taxation is essential, otherwise nothing ever gets done.
There are other
considerations.
Increased income means
increased demand, which means increased production—which implies that this government
would have some control or input into the means of production, one of many
sources of economic power, and perhaps the most legitimate.
Going back to the times
of the Weimar Republic, it’s pretty obvious that excessive inflation wipes out
public and corporate debt, destroys the savings of the middle class, and
renders the mass of the people no more desperate than before.
In my opinion, this is an
option of last resort as it requires great finesse to offset (in the positive
sense), the usual, nominal cost-benefit analyses.
The
Food Bank
Anyhow, I
was at the food bank again today.
I got to
the food bank at about twenty to eight and there were a couple of guys already
there.
One guy
was saying his apartment is cold and he had to borrow an electric heater.
Every
device in
his apartment is on one circuit. He goes to make toast and the fuse blows,
there are sparks everywhere. He calls the landlord and the guy never gets back
to him. The other guy was saying the person above him is a noisy, party animal
sort of a guy, and the guy next door loses it and goes on some kind of psycho
rant pretty often. The two are friends, and between the two of them, living
there isn’t very good.
Yeah, I
know all about it, Bud.
I just
laughed.
By the
time they open the doors, the chill has gone right through you, and by that
time the lower back was screaming...I fell from a scaffolding and broke my back
in three places many years ago. It kind of affects you in some ways…
Guy #2
was on Ontario Works and lives in Geared to Income Housing, which sort of
confirms my own fears: the place is a zoo, and once you’re in there, they
reduce your benefit and it’s awful hard to ever escape that scene.
(It’s
okay, ladies and gentlemen. I’m a highly-trained Canadian journalist and I’ve
been embedded in the story for 20 + years.)
Guy # 1
says he heats the apartment with the electric oven, an all too familiar story.
You could
learn a lot, hanging out in front of a Canadian food bank.
Other
than that, I sure hope the members of this committee have a very nice day.
Thank you for pretending to listen.
End
Louis Shalako is the founder of Long Cool One Books
and the author of twenty-one novels, numerous novellas and other short stories.
Louis studied Radio, Television and Journalism Arts at Lambton College of
Applied Arts and Technology, later going on to study fine art. He began writing
for community newspapers and industrial magazines over thirty years ago. His
stories appear in publications including Perihelion
Science Fiction, Bewildering Stories, Aurora Wolf, Ennea, Wonderwaan, Algernon,
Nova Fantasia, and Danse Macabre.
He lives in southern Ontario and writes full time. Louis enjoys cycling,
swimming and good books.
