Re: Co-op housing residents fear federal cash crunch (News, July 16)
It’s disappointing, but probably expected, that federal support for co-operative housing will be withdrawn. There’s the usual refrain: to balance the budget there must be program cuts.
If cuts to the co-op subsidy force tenants into homelessness, that’s a cost to municipalities and provinces, but it’s off the federal books.
The province plays the same refrain, for example: we can’t meet court-ordered improvements to public education and still balance the budget. Why not? The answer is that we cannot fairly tax corporations and high income individuals. Again, why not? The answer (famously in the last provincial election) is “wealth creation.”
But “creation” is really transfer. as 99.9 per cent of us must pay in many ways to transfer wealth to 0.1 per cent of people.
Why? Because it costs a lot to maintain offshore tax havens while looking after private tropical islands.
So it’s clear why the feds can’t afford housing subsidies and the province can’t afford decent education.
It’s called wealth creation.
Greg Holloway
Saanich