A sad budget day for many

For Anna Croxen and many other low-income Canadians, Monday's budget won't do anything improve their lives. Pat Daley finds out what would.

By: Pat Daley

In this installment of her regular Straight Goods column, Pat Daley asks why Paul Martin's tax cuts don't help, and finds out what Croxen is waiting for.

  Anna Croxen is looking forward to the day that she's in an income category where she can actually benefit from Paul Martin's budget. Until then, all the finance minister has managed to do is make her feel sad.
  Croxen has four children, but the increase Martin announced in the Canada Child Tax Benefit means nothing to her. Every cent she gets from the federal government is deducted from the social assistance she receives from the province of Ontario. That's the story of life for people who need income support.
  "There's never an increase," she says. "It's always a decrease. If I receive any child support, there's a decrease. If I get money from working part time, there's a decrease. There's never any extra money."
  Her feelings are echoed by Josephine Grey, Human Rights Project Director at Low Income Families Together (LIFT) in Toronto, who says, "The minute you step over that line and get assistance, you live in a different country."
  When parents realize that the Child Benefit is being clawed back from their assistance, they feel discriminated against and insulted, Grey says. They start asking, "Don't my kids deserve anything?"
  Anna Croxen sees a system that is stacked against her. The assistance she receives from the province for herself and four children, aged one, four, 15, and 20 - all in child care or school - amounts to $712 a month. She just started working part time as a home support visitor in the parenting program at Toronto's Stop 103, bringing her total monthly income up to $1,300.
  Having a subsidized apartment helps a lot, but earning more money means her rent is going up because it's based on 31% of her income - no matter how much that is or how many people she's supporting. Talk about bracket creep.
  Croxen sees seniors on fixed incomes, like her own mother, having a hard time of it too. "When you need an extra something, it's your kids that you come to," she says of seniors. "We try to work together as a family to make sure we don't have hungry days and the rent is paid."
  Although it's what all the tax cut boosters are pitching, just having more money in her pocket is not the answer for Croxen. As far as she's concerned, when one level of government gives her more, another level takes it away. She'd rather see changes in policies for things like rent-geared-to-income that would let her pay 25% of her income on rent instead of 31%.
  Croxen would also like to see more direct policies - like Martin's announcement of extended maternity leave - which let a person plan, make decisions, and prepare for income and other changes. Everything the government does for low-income people is indirect, she says. "It's always something we have to search for."
  So, in the meantime, she's working and waiting for the day when she can actually benefit from a budget that helps the average family get a little bit ahead and makes sure that the poorest never do.

Pat Daley is a freelance writer and editor in Athlone in Simcoe County, Ontario.

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