Are B.C. Liberal MLAs putting families first?
Christy Clark, their new boss, says putting families first is going to be the government’s top priority.
But since the last provincial election in 2009, families have been taking it on the nose from the B.C. Liberal government.
First, the surprise introduction of the HST hit the budget of a typical family of four by $300 to $400 a year.
Then, the B.C. Liberals started hiking monthly Medical Service Plan (MSP) premiums: for families with children from $108 to $114 on Jan. 1, 2010, and again this past Jan. 1, to $121. And next Jan. 1, they plan to hike them again to $128. Who knows where they’ll stop?
Taken together, the three rate hikes – the ones we know about so far – add up to nearly 19 per cent over two years. It’s a lot of money for a middle-class family, pushing the annual MSP bill up $240, to $1,536.
You may ask yourself why they would push up a nasty payroll tax at triple the rate of inflation in the middle of a tough economy, when many families are living from paycheque to paycheque.
Here’s one simple explanation: MLAs don’t pay MSP premiums themselves. Taxpayers pick up the MSP tab for every one of our 85 MLAs, their spouses and children.
It gets better.
Provincial public servants also get their MSP premiums paid and so do ferry workers and most hospital employees.
B.C. Liberal MLAs like to say we have the lowest personal income tax rates in Canada for income up to $116,000. What they don’t like to admit is MSP premiums bring in $1.8 billion in annual revenue, while personal income tax generates just $5.3 billion.
Add up all the provincial taxes – income tax, MSP premiums, the HST, carbon tax and property tax – and a family of four earning $90,000 pays $1,981 more than the same family in Alberta. A family earning $60,000 pays $2,248 more.
That is, unless you’re a B.C. MLA, or you work for the government. In that case, you get a helping hand with your medical service plan premiums, to the tune of roughly $1,500.
It’s a policy that puts families first, provided that somebody in your family works for the government.
Economists like to talk about unintended side-effects. One nasty side-effect of the 19 per cent hike in MSP premiums is the huge hit to the provincial treasury. It’s costing a fortune to pay the monthly MSP premiums for MLAs, public servants, health-care workers and teachers. You’ve heard that health care and education costs are going through the roof? This is one reason.
Rather than just renegotiating with the unions to get them to pay for their own MSP premiums, why not help all B.C. families?
Here’s a better idea: scrap MSP premiums completely and get rid of the costly MSP collection bureaucracy in Victoria. Alberta and four other provinces manage without this nasty, unfair payroll tax.
It’s time we put families first, all families, not just those who work for government.
Gregory Thomas is the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s B.C. communications director.
