Imagine a low-income family working hard day after day to make ends meet. Both the parents in the family have full-time, full-year jobs, although they are the low-wage jobs that are all too common in Canada.
Both parents get raises that boost their gross family earnings by $6,370 a year. And the final result of their efforts to succeed? A loss of $213 in disposable income.
This perversion of public policy is sometimes known as “stacking.” Increases in wages are eroded or erased by a combination of increases in taxes and other payroll deductions, along with reductions in benefits from government programs that were set up mainly to help low-income people in the first place.
The CCPA is Canada’s leading organization for articulating progressive, positive social policy reform. Ever constructive and independent, the CCPA’s respected voice has helped produce substantial results in the movement for true democracy and equality of opportunity that all Canadians can support.
— David Eby, Executive Director
BC Civil Liberties Association