How fortunate we are to live here - From the Cluttered Desk with Keith Roulston

Those of us who are, like me, senior citizens these days are so fortunate to live in the time we do.

 

I recall, in the years after we got television, watching movies where old men (or, old then - we tend to live longer now) continued to work underground in mines. There was none of the old age security we enjoy today, which allows us, who lived working-class lives, to live in retirement in relative comfort. 

 

But somehow, back then, governments realized that they could do something for their voters that the voters couldn’t do for themselves, and their employers were often reluctant to do.

 

Canada’s first public pension plan was introduced in 1927 with the passing of the Old Age Pensions Act. That legislation established a means-tested pension for men and women 70 years of age and over who had little or no income. The rules generally became easier along the way as more and more people became eligible for the pension. (Of course it also meant higher income tax to pay the cost.)

 

The load on seniors, as well as all Canadians, was further reduced in 1968 when a medicare program was implemented. Until then, Canadians faced high medical care costs when they were afflicted  by illness. (As a youngster I couldn’t go to hospital with rheumatic fever in the early 1960s because we couldn’t afford the hospital charges. The family doctor regularly came to our home to treat me, and I was much happier than I would have been in hospital.)

 

The Canada Pension Plan was created by federal-provincial negotiations in 1965 in response to growing poverty among retired Canadians. Even though they hadn’t paid into it, senior Canadians were eligible for aid right away. It’s my generation that had fully supported the plan all their working lives before they began to use the plan.

 

While life has become easier for seniors, others in society have also benefited. The first children’s allowance was introduced in 1945 - the first universal welfare program implemented in Canada, passed under the leadership of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, the Canada child benefit is administered by the Canada Revenue Agency. It is a tax-free monthly payment made to eligible families to help with the cost of raising children under 18 years of age. Launched in 2006, the program targets children under age six (recently extended to age 17).

 

In 2012, under former Premier Dalton McGuinty, the Ontario Drug Benefit program was introduced, providing inexpensive drugs for all but the highest income Ontario seniors.

 

And recently, under pressure from the New Democratic Party, the federal Liberal government has committed to a dental care program designed to give people prepaid dental care­ - something that has been getting more and more expensive. (When I was going to school in Lucknow many years ago, local service clubs paid for visits to the local dentist for all local public school students.)

 

Most of these programs have been introduced by Liberal and NDP governments. When they were announced, they were often opposed by Progressive Conservatives at the provincial or federal level - their concern was keeping taxes low. By the time these parties came to power, the programs had become popular with the public and Conservatives quietly went along.

 

Our neighbours in the United States were not so fortunate. There is such a fear of high taxes down there, that things like government medicare coverage are ignored. Fortunate voters are lucky enough to have jobs with companies that offer them medical care through insurance. Others, in a country where most of the hospitals are owned by for-profit corporations, face costs that often add up to thousands of dollars. Doctors, too, are free enterprise allowing them to earn massive salaries.
I recall some doctors resisting when free medicare was introduced in Canada and they resented having anyone else to have a say in how much they could charge, as the government did. We became used to government limits and doctors generally accepted (generous) incomes. At the same time, private clinics have been set up in provinces like Ontario, offering  faster service, with the government picking up at least a portion of the cost.

 

I’m fortunate to have reached old age in a country as generous as Canada. Still, perhaps it’s unwise of governments to have provided funding, without ever knowing how much I save, for the medical care that has allowed me to live to be 15 years older than my dad was when he died and 10 years older than my mother.

 

Still, I’m fortunate to live in this time in this place that allows me to enjoy old age.