By Glen Turner – Special to the Sydenham Current
When I was asked to do an opinion column here, my first thought was – “What to write about?”
My second thought was – well… “Opinions are like a certain ‘body part’, and everyone has one – it’s just that some are narrower than others.”
Third thought was – “Hmmm… so many opinion pieces are so negative, and based on an ideological or political slant.
Sooo… I thought, “What about things that we ALL talk about locally?”
For my first try, I thought that TAXES would be a perfect start.
See… I’ve officially entered my so-called ‘golden years’, which means that I’m… older.
But the tax thing has been bothering me since I hit that milestone of ‘senior’, which is funny, because many folks see it as the next step down that slippery slope to burial.
I’ve worked part-time and full-time since I was 14. But… my Canada Pension cheque still has Income Tax deducted, every month.
I taught for a total of 38 years, yet my pension cheque has Income Tax deducted, every month.
I’m old enough to have qualified for (and I love the term) – “Old Age Security” – aka, OAS – but- guess what?
Income Tax is deducted from that too!
Okay – I think someone should have told us years ago, that no matter how much time we spent working, and no matter how much we contributed to those plans through our monthly deductions for all those years, and even when we qualified for OAS, we’d STILL get hit by “Income Tax”.
Income Tax on… what was supposed to be our retirement income.
Hmmm…
The Federal politicians tell us how much they’re doing to enhance our lives at this advanced age, but… to be honest, I don’t see it. And I read ALL the pronouncements from the politicos, in their tax-payer funded newsletters.
Maybe it’s time for Mr. Bev Shipley to take a stand.
Maybe he could step forward and say to his colleagues: “We need to do something to actually reduce the tax burden on the folks that worked all those years, and still get hit by Revenue Canada.”
Imagine… our usual local back-bencher, taking a stand and getting National exposure for it!
Maybe I’ll send him a letter and ask directly.
We’ll see what happens.
