Having turned 65 last month, for the first time I was entitled to a discount on a purchase. Two dollars off to see the excellent The plunger, by Francis Leclerc. I would have gone there even without the reduction, I assure you, and we cannot blame private companies for trying to attract customer segments as they please and with discounts.
But I was waiting to pass this anniversary milestone to avail myself of the so-called wisdom of the elders and to garland the State: stop taking us, those 65 and over, for the poor.
We are the richest generation in human history. We and our parents, who are still alive due to aging, are going to make the greatest transfer of wealth ever recorded in our wills. On average, we are in such good financial condition that several wills pass a generation, from grandparents giving their money to their grandchildren, with good reason. Their older children have finished paying for house and cottage and do not need help.
According to the Institut de la statistique du Québec, the average net worth of households over 65 in 2019 was $640,000. This is six times more than for those under 35, almost three times the net worth of 35-44 year olds. And it is to them that we offer discounts in the SEPAQ national parks, at VIA Rail and on public transport?
It’s because we always remember times not so long ago when old age rhymed with distress. But our social democratic action of the last 50 years, the proliferation of retirement tools and general enrichment have melted the poverty rates of the elderly. According to the Market Basket Measure, the closest to reality, the poverty rate for seniors was still 8% in 2006, but was only 2.3% in 2020, half the general rate of 4, 8%. (And which is, by the way, the weakest in Canada.)
The optical illusion is amplified by the attention we rightly pay to seniors who are in CHSLDs. But they are in total only 40,000 out of 2.1 million older Quebecers, or 1.9% of the whole.
The fact is that, as a society, we have done an excellent job of protecting the vast majority of our seniors, and if more needs to be done, it is by addressing the remaining poverty of the population, not at the top of the age scale.
We are discussing in several regions reductions to be offered for public transport, which badly needs new passengers. It’s fine to offer free or reduced passage to seniors and students, knowing that only the less wealthy among them will use it. But those who really need a boost are the working poor. The housekeeper who takes the metro at six in the morning to go and clean houses in Outremont or Westmount. The immigrant on his way to his poultry gutting or berry packing plant.
I therefore propose that the Quebec government target its reductions according to income and not age. Since Raymond Bachand (the former PQ member and president of the Solidarity Fund who lost his way to the PLQ, where he was finance minister) we have an excellent tool: the solidarity tax credit. Thanks to it, nearly three million Quebec households at the bottom of the scale receive reimbursement of their QST and GST expenses and housing assistance. The credit is modulated according to both family situation and income. That is to say that it is more generous for the poorest and is reduced as one climbs the wage scale.
The State should therefore create a solidarity card – I propose to call it “Sesame” to avoid any stigmatization – which can be given to all beneficiaries of this tax credit. They could use it in public transport, at SEPAQ, in museums and in any public or private company that would like to accept it to attract customers or demonstrate social solidarity. It could also be integrated into the chip of the health insurance card or the future digital identity card on which the government is working.
We could decide to include a “culture passport” offering reduced prices for books, films and shows, knowing that these purchases are often out of reach for this segment of the population. And since, among our less fortunate citizens, there are many newcomers, this would be a way of inviting them to taste our cultural fruits at little cost.
The Sesame card would solve a problem faced by all those who want to introduce “social pricing”. You may not know this, but income verification is standard practice at food banks: users must present their notice of assessment from the previous year to get their free baskets. This is not a happy step.
The City of Quebec, for example, will introduce a 33% reduction in public transport fares this year for its most modest citizens. She does not yet know exactly how she will go about identifying the beneficiaries. This dilemma is likely to be repeated each time a municipality or an organization wants to offer a discount to the most disadvantaged. The answer: the Sesame card. Will anyone open this door?
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