Financial relief for seniors

A retired couple on a fixed income, in a house they bought in 1978, is on paper wealthy. In practice they are asset-rich and cash-poor.

Every property tax increase comes out of the same fixed monthly amount. Four years of increases compounding at nearly three times inflation lands on them hardest. Some of them are quietly deciding they cannot stay in Burlington.

That is a policy failure, and it is fixable.

What exists right now

Burlington and Halton Region already offer tax relief programs for low-income seniors and low-income persons with disabilities — including deferrals and rebates. Most eligible residents have never heard of them.

What I will push for

• Make the programs findable A relief program nobody knows about is a relief program that does not exist. Eligibility information should be mailed with the tax bill itself, in plain language, in large type — not buried three levels into a website.
• Automatic renewal Requiring an elderly resident to reapply annually, on a deadline, with paperwork, is a filter that screens out exactly the people who need it most.
• Review the thresholds If an eligibility threshold hasn't moved while taxes rose 26% and rents rose faster, it has quietly tightened every single year.
• Widen what the relief reaches Transit fares, recreation program fees and permit costs all come out of the same fixed income.

And practically

I have spent over a decade doing wills and estates. A great deal of that work is sitting with older people and their families and going carefully through what they own, what they owe, and what happens next. I know how hard it is to ask for help with money, and how much harder it is at eighty than at forty.

If you are a Ward 2 senior and you cannot work out what you qualify for, call me and I will help you find out. Not as your lawyer — the campaign and my law practice are entirely separate, and I will not take you on as a client. Just as the neighbour who happens to know where the forms are.

Program names, eligibility thresholds and deadlines should be confirmed directly with the City's Finance department before relying on them.