Cash-strapped British Columbians hoping for some financial relief from the province might be disappointed at the aid offered by Premier John Horgan on Wednesday.
Although his government billed it as “a package estimated to be worth up to $1,500 for a family of four” — in reality, more than half of that amount is classic government number-fudging that won’t translate into actual new cash in your pocket.
And while a small subset of families might qualify for, at best, $760 spread out over the next six months — most others are going to see far less if they get anything at all.
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Not as impressive as it sounds
Key to the confusion is the Horgan government’s announcement Wednesday it was capping the maximum allowable rent increase to 2% this year.
The NDP has been signalling since June that it would not let rents rise at the rate of inflation this year, because that would mean an up to 6% allowable increase for landlords.
But instead of announcing the solution three months ago, the NDP held on to the issue, extrapolated how hard people would have been hit if it had done nothing, and then rolled those purely hypothetical savings of $816 over six months (based on a $2,000 monthly rent) into its total.
This crafty move doubled on paper the so-called “savings” the government could trumpet in its announcement — even though it was just doing what it had already promised and would never have allowed to happen anyway.
How much will you get?
So, remove that rent issue out of the so-called $1,500 in aid and what are you left with?
A maximum of $760 in new cash per qualifying family between now and March 2023.
It sounds better than nothing and for many people, it will be welcome.
But far fewer people are going to get this amount than you might think.
Only around 123,000 families will qualify for the full $760. That’s because the amount you get is based on size (at least two adults and two children in the household) and income (below $117,000).
Part of the difficulty in detangling reality from the misleading $1,500 figure is how the Horgan government structured the aid.
It’s made up of two main programs — the Climate Action Tax Credit, sent out every four months, and the Child Opportunity Benefit, which arrives monthly.
Only 43% of people in BC will get the maximum $410 under the Climate Action Tax Credit — and if your household income is more than $148,000 you’ll get nothing.
Only 26% of families will get the maximum $350 under the Child Opportunity Benefit — and if your household income is more than $117,000 you’ll get cut off as well.
Premier admits it won’t be enough
So in short: don’t expect $1,500 in cash from the government to help with inflation and interest rates. Most people won’t even get half of that.
The premier admitted as much on Wednesday, despite the financial aid program costing the government $600 million.
“We didn’t set out to find all of the solutions to the challenges of today,” he said.
“We set out to take the pieces that we could… and direct it toward those who need it the most. Are people going to miss that threshold? Is it going to be sufficient for all families? Certainly not. But it is a significant step.”
A significant step, true.
Though it comes almost five months after the premier first publicly declared financial help was on the way. And for many, that help won’t be nearly significant enough.
Rob Shaw is Daily Hive’s Political Columnist, tackling the biggest political stories in BC. You can catch him on CHEK News as their on-air Political Correspondent.
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