During the 2024 federal budget release last week, the government announced it is imposing a capital gains tax, which was met with blowback from higher-earning Canadians. Some argued the change would affect earnings earmarked for retirement, while others argued it would affect their cottage or investment properties’ sales down the line.
The one commonality? Higher-income earners want to keep more of what they make.
However, not all of your tax dollars go to the things you can see such as roads and other infrastructure, healthcare, and education. Some of the taxes you pay now can change someone’s life for the better; this is the social safety net that Canadians have come to appreciate, particularly during a global pandemic.
Blackbird CEO Lisa Kirbie took to Twitter this week, speaking about her own lived experience and how that safety net got her through.
Lisa explained that, while things like bank charges or small unexpected payments are not life-altering for most people, they were a “make or break” for her—and many other lower-income Canadians—at one point.
Benefits such as subsidized daycare and housing, along with the Child Tax Benefit (CTB), are among the reasons Lisa was able to “scrape by” while going to university to complete her undergraduate degree.
Paying taxes is no fun—for anyone—but living in a society with a social safety net, where we try to ensure equality of opportunity for all, is a good use of taxpayer dollars. As one Twitter user put it, sometimes you’re doing the “catching” with that net and sometimes you’re the one being caught.