Liberal government forgets working Canadians

Opinion

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This article was published 05/01/2024 (645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In 2016, Justin Trudeau’s new Liberal government introduced the Canada Child Benefit, tax-free payments from the federal government which provide the greatest amount of assistance to low-income families. The benefit saw a 6.3 per cent increase in 2023, with the result that families with household incomes of less than roughly $34,000 could receive up to $7,537 per child under the age of six and up to $6,275 per child for kids aged from six to 17. The amount decreases as income goes up.

Seven years later, we can see the impact of policies targeted directly at assistance for low-income families. This is particularly true with respect to child poverty. In 2021, there were 635,000 fewer children living in poverty compared to prior to when the CCB was introduced in 2015. Indeed, by 2021, poverty had decreased among all groups, but especially children: the number of children living in poverty was less than half the 2015 level.

The CCB illustrates how concerted effort on the part of governments can make a big difference in the lives of the least fortunate. It also illustrates the Liberal party’s previous commitment to a fair deal for both working-class and low-income Canadians.

But, in more recent years, that commitment appears to be seriously waning.

Take three examples.

The government’s $10 per day child-care program was sold in part as a way to provide financial relief to working families struggling to pay sky-high child-care costs.

But a recent study conducted by UBC academic Lea Caragata shows that very few low-income families can access the province’s 13,000 $10-per-day spaces. When Caragata set out to recruit low-income single mothers who use the $10-a-day spaces, she could only find 17 in the entire province.

If not low-income single mothers, then who is accessing these cheap child-care spaces? Those parents — mostly high-income and well-educated — with the resources to find and clinch the $10-a-day spaces available. Indeed, Caragata reports that one child-care provider confided in her that the very first kid to score a $10-a-day space had two lawyers for parents.

This was a largely predictable outcome, especially given Quebec’s experience with its own child-care system. Right from the outset, there was concern that the government’s program would not reach the working families that most needed help. Advocates raised concerns about how the proposed program was out of whack with the needs of working-class Canadians who take on shifts, work odd hours, and work two or more part-time jobs.

It was simply not designed with the needs of working people in mind, and we are now seeing the consequences of this.

The second example is the Liberal government’s sweeping mandates to increase the use of “zero-emission vehicles” in Canada. Since 2019, the government has offered an incentive of up to $5,000 for the purchase of such vehicles.

That’s great news for Canadians who can afford to go out and buy a new Tesla or even a Chevy Bolt, which starts at roughly $46,000 before taxes. But working-class families who might instead have their eyes on a used 2008 Corolla will be left out in the cold.

In its mandate for 100 per cent zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035, the government’s Impact Analysis Statement notes that low-income Canadians will suffer as cars with combustion engines become less and less available and the price of EVs remained out of reach.

Low-income Canadians, the statement also notes, are more likely to live in rental units that lack charging facilities, so they are unable to purchase these cars.

Nevertheless, the government is aggressively pushing ahead. That’s great news for high-income Canadians who can replace their old BMW with a new BMW i4, and hire an electrician (presumably who drives a gas-burning truck) to install a charger in their garage. But workers are, once again, left out in the cold.

Third, the government has massively increased targets for permanent residency, with this hitting half a million people in 2025. Some Canadians will benefit enormously from this influx. Others, particularly some workers, will suffer as they try to negotiate wage increases in low-skill labour markets that are saturated with a supply of new workers.

Half a million people settling in Canada in a single year will also continue to apply pressure to the housing market, keeping prices high as supply lags behind demand. That’s good news if you’re a wealthy homeowner, but bad news if you’re a working-class Canadian trying to buy a starter home or, increasingly, pay the rent. Last week, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem suggested that historically high rental costs in Canada would now be declining were it not for the government’s very high immigration rates.

In each case, the Liberals have pursued policies that benefit middle- and especially high-income Canadians at the expense of the interests of working-class and low-income Canadians. It’s no wonder that support for the Liberal party among working-class Canadians has all but collapsed since 2015.

Royce Koop is a professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba and academic director of the Centre for Social Science Research and Policy.