Buying the Popular Vote : Remaining in Office

"The policy was to get money out the door indiscriminately. It was an exercise in vote-buying."

"If you don't believe deficits are important,why not do it? What price have since [been] paid?"

"Younger people got the CERB [Canada Emergency Response Benefit] and the student benefit regardless of whether they needed it -- $5,000 just for being young."

Philip Cross, former chief economist, Statistics Canada 

"That approach [prioritizing wealth redistribution over economic growth and competitiveness] is clearly unsustainable."

"Without an enabling environment that prioritizes private sector growth, nurtures new ventures and incentivizes existing businesses to invest and create well-paying jobs, the economy will falter and household income will stagnate."

Goldy Hyder, president, Business Council of Canada

"These changes [COVID-19 benefits indiscriminately metered out to cushion workers against widespread lockdowns in the face of disposable income dropping during the coronavirus' impact on employment leading to increased household incomes] were driven by unprecedented increases in transfers to households, as the value of government COVID-19 support measures exceeded losses in wages and salaries and self-employment income."

"As the pandemic unfolded in Canada, households experienced extraordinary changes in their economic well-being."

"While all households increased their net saving in the second quarter, the improvement did not carry through to the third quarter for the lowest-income households."

Statistics Canada report

Almost seven in every 10 residents over age 15 in Calgary's Skyview Ranch neighbourhood, received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit in the initial month that the pandemic aid was available. Kelly Ernst, vice president of the Calgary Centre for Newcomers, said many in the area were hit hard by layoffs. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

 

 

Perhaps it was a predictable result. Particularly since there were instructions given to civil servants at Canada Revenue Agency not to look too deeply into applications for the CERB program, but to focus on approving them as they deluged their offices. Applicants did not need to prove they were eligible, merely to apply for the benefit. As a result, Canadians experienced "extraordinary changes in the economic well-being" throughout the pandemic; thousands more gained from support payments than normally would be the case fully employed.

In 2020, one three-month period saw young and middle-aged households gaining roughly $3,000 more with support measures than what they may have lost in earnings. Canada may be well behind other countries in the race to inoculate their citizens against the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19, but it is far, far ahead in financially supporting the voting public than its counterparts. Needless to say it is all borrowed funding, billions of it, that will in the future, have to be repaid, a colossal debt.

But the game this government plays is the near future, paving the way for its reelection, while the long future, paying for the handouts to prospective voters will be another government's headache in the reckoning to come. Statistics Canada's new data lays it all out; that smug outlook for the next election to bring the current minority Liberal government back to a majority government is all but assured given the public's satisfaction with the doling out of financial support; courtesy of the taxpayers of the future.

According to the Statistics Canada results of its investigation, disposable income for the first three quarters of 2020 increased around 17 percent across all income levels thanks to the government's COVID support strategy which ended up, unsurprisingly, exceeding losses in wages and salaries lost to COVID lockdowns. If this was not meant to impress Canadian voters into believing they have a superior, exceptional government looking out for their interests, then it might be attributed to an inept government that saw nothing amiss in saddling the country's future to an immense debt.

 

That money so generously handed out to Canadians 'in need' was not, according to Statistics Canada, spent on living necessities such as rent and food. The savings rate revealed by Statistics Canada places it all in perspective. Net savings in 2019 were roughly $1,147 each household; that grew to $10,507 during the first three quarters of 2020. The finance department's fiscal monitor was released last Friday, indicating the budgetary deficit for April to December was $248 billion, most of which relating to financial transfers to individuals ($159 billion).

 

CP/Giordano Ciampini

File photo of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit landing site as seen on Aug. 10, 2020

"The $2,000-a-month Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) paid out just over $81.6 billion in benefits to 8.9 million people from March until October."

"It was predominantly used by people who earned under $47,630 in 2019, figures from the Canada Revenue Agency show, but those higher up the income ladder also applied for the aid program."

"The CRA numbers show that at least 114,620 people who earned between about $100,000 and $200,000 last year applied for the CERB."

"A further 14,070 people who had made more than $210,000 applied for the benefit."

Global News report, November 2020