OTTAWA \u2014 Advocates are warning that Ottawa\u2019s growing spending on older Canadians could widen regional tensions, ahead of an expected fall independence referendum in Alberta.<\/p>\n
Jack Mintz, an economist at the University of Calgary, says that the federal government\u2019s $80 billion Old Age Security (OAS) program<\/a> will be an easy target for Alberta separatists making the case that the province is overtaxed and underserved by Ottawa.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I were an Alberta separatist, I\u2019d point to (OAS) and say, aha, see, once again they want to raid Alberta,\u201d said Mintz.<\/p>\n Alberta and the other Prairie provinces<\/a> have young median ages, relative to the other provinces, and as such receive a lower share of OAS payments.<\/p>\n Alberta\u2019s median age was 38.1<\/a> in 2023, compared to 40 in Ontario, 42.6 in Quebec, and almost 45 across Atlantic Canada<\/a><\/p>\n Mintz says that Alberta\u2019s higher average salaries<\/a> mean that seniors in Alberta see the benefits they do get taxed at a higher rate.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a benefit that\u2019s targeted and phased out for higher-income people. So, again, Alberta gets hit more,\u201d said Mintz.<\/p>\n Mintz was one of several economists who called in the 2010s for Ottawa to raise the qualifying age for OAS from 65 to 67. The Harper government adopted a plan to gradually do this in 2012, but this was reversed shortly after the Liberals took power in late 2015.<\/p>\n In 2022, the Trudeau government boosted OAS payments by 10 per cent<\/a> to those over 75. The Bloc Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois has subsequently pushed to extend the increase to all seniors.<\/p>\n A Bloc bill recommending the full increase passed through the House of Commons in late 2024, with the support of all four opposition parties<\/a>, stalling when an election was called last year.<\/p>\n Bloc MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval said Monday that his party\u2019s plan to increase to OAS hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been for a long time advocating for a rise of (OAS) because we know that the indexation they have has nothing to do with inflation, and it\u2019s a regular complaint that we have all the time,\u201d said Barsalou-Duval during an unrelated press briefing in Ottawa.<\/p>\n The Bloc proposal would tack on an estimated $16 billion<\/a> over five years to the cost of OAS, which is already expected to grow to more than $100 billion<\/a> annually by 2030.<\/p>\n Paul Kershaw, head of generational fairness group Generation Squeeze, said at a separate press conference on Monday that OAS needs to be fixed irrespective of Alberta\u2019s future in Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cThis moment of sending (billions of dollars) to retirees who have relative financial security compared to many, including many younger Canadians in Alberta is something that needs attention,\u201d said Kershaw.<\/p>\n Kershaw said he agreed that OAS, in its current form, could be put forward as an exemplar of \u201cthe concerns in Alberta about dollars going in inefficient ways to Ottawa.\u201d<\/p>\n A recent study by the Fraser Institute<\/a> estimated that Alberta contributes roughly $14.2 billion more to Ottawa annually than it gets back in federal spending.<\/p>\n Recent polling shows that support for Alberta independence is highest among men in their prime working years<\/a>. Three in 10 men between the ages of 35 and 49 say that Alberta should leave Canada and become its own country, more than any other demographic.<\/p>\n Almost half of Albertans who make more than $150,000 annually<\/a> but say they have trouble paying their monthly bills support separation.<\/p>\n National Post Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com<\/a> and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 Advocates are warning that Ottawa\u2019s growing spending on older Canadians could widen regional tensions, ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16552,2138,17,26114,26115,61],"class_list":["post-60349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta-separatist","tag-bloc-quebecois","tag-canada","tag-jack-mintz","tag-oas","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
rmohamed@postmedia.com<\/p>\n