Financial help should be COVID focus
By Letter to the Editor on May 28, 2020.
As many on social media have noted, COVID-19 has, if nothing else, highlighted the significant disparity that exists in western society. It has challenged us to confront issues that we would otherwise never consider.
In April, Ant—nio Guterres of the United Nations stated that COVID-19 is “fast becoming human rights crisis.” How much of a crisis the pandemic presents is dependent on individual government response. Posts have been circulating on social media likening government-mandated shutdowns and social distancing to Nazi Germany and other dictatorships. The logic behind this is tone-deaf but points to an important issue. Most businesses are non-essential but the livelihoods of those who run them are not.
People are rightfully angry that they are being asked to choose between the safety of their families and communities and their financial stability. The anger can be misplaced, though. The focus needs to be on financial support, not on repealing safety measures. The Canadian government has failed to provide adequate support for many small business owners and entrepreneurs, effectively putting lives at risk. Lethbridge’s new transit system has left many of the city’s most vulnerable people in the dark, limiting access to resources and severely impacting their quality of life. The provincial government has critically harmed health care in Alberta, further jeopardizing people’s access to life-saving care.
Sorcha Deheer
Lethbridge
7-6
there is no answer for this because the government shot itself in the foot. It is not the Government that has the money, it is the working poor who support the Government. In my lifetime I have seen the government divesting me of 6% of my income for just income tax in 1964 to at present (2020) divesting me of 48% of my income (as a pensioner drawing on my RIFF). All the while, businesses have all sort of write-offs and a much lower tax rate than personal. PS: I am not mentioning the GST or PST which is above and beyound. So the question is who supports who. WE are not working and paying taxes so where does the ” Government” get the money to support us if we can’t support it. Yes it is like Hitler. And as one person quoted. “Why are we waiting for a vaccine when 99.9% of the people survive”
Another item I forgot to mention. Since Parliament won’t resume till Sept 21 all MP’s should forgo their salaries and apply for EI like all of us who pay their “stipends”
the letter is worthy of consideration, as are the entries by phlush.
i cannot help but feel that entire exercise includes seeing how far sucker voters in supposed “free” societies can be corralled, pushed around, limited, have basic rights infringed upon, absconded (just sublime is the voluntary app that the sheep can download so as to be surveilled upon by the already far too intrusive govt).
the vulnerable need protection from the covid virus, and so too, the vulnerable sheep need protection from the govt virus. i do not see these as mutually exclusive needs.
the most significant point in the letter is that business owners have the right to make their living…and so do employees.