My hopes for our 150th birthday

Bi Bill Fox/Columnist

We have so much to be grateful for living in this wonderful country and it is right to celebrate our birthday, but there is so much more we could be doing to make this really the very best country in the world.

Here’s my take on what needs improvement in Canada, and how we can attain it:

• The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer – Our young people cannot afford to live in the GTA or any of Canada’s larger cities. Home sales in the Vancouver area fell by 33 per cent in September compared with the same time in 2015, as the market adjusts to the B.C. government’s 15-per-cent tax on foreign buyers. As a result, the outlandish prices are slowly starting to drop. I would suggest a 50-per-cent tax on foreign buyers and put a similar tax on any individuals who own more than three residential properties purely for investment. We all need an affordable home! It is morally wrong to allow the rich to get richer on the backs of people who simply want to be able to afford a home.
• Too many cannot find full-time jobs – To make ends meet, many people have two or more part-time jobs. With people like Kevin O’Leary and Donald Trump advising manufacturers to outsource jobs to places like China, etc. we lose investing in Canada’s future. My solution would be a 30-per-cent tariff on all foreign manufactured goods. Initially, this may be difficult and will not bring the jobs to Canada right away, but with the tariffs we can put more money into social programs to help those who struggle despite working two jobs with no benefits.
• Student loans are wrong – As it is now, you need to either be wealthy to pursue a good education, are able to get a scholarship or need to take out a student loan. Education should be free to any deserving student pursuing a career in a field that we all benefit from. For example, we need more doctors and fewer lawyers. In a recent study, 32 per cent of Canadian employers surveyed say they are encountering difficulties in hiring the workers they need due to labour shortages, with skilled trades workers leading the pack. We could encourage people to go into these positions if their education was free.
• Our education system needs an overhaul – A few months ago, I wrote a column on how poorly our education system is compared to Finland (the United Nations judged them the best education system in the world). A retired high school mathematics department head then sent me some comments … “get rid of math as a subject from Grade 6 to 11…. just teach the basics addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, percent, integers and fractions up to grade 6 and then teach the MATH necessary in subject areas such as science, business, social studies, shops (auto and woodworking), and culinary, in those subject areas ONLY… then the math becomes RELEVANT for students and students make the necessary CONNECTIONS needed for TRUE learning !!!” This could be a start!
• People living above their means – We are buying too many things on credit! Eighty per cent of people living in the States are in debt! I dare say we are not much better in Canada. Once again, I have written a column on how we buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like. I’m sure we could look around our homes and see things we don’t need.
• Bank profits have to be reeled in –Overall, the five biggest lenders grew their combined profit by 13 per cent from a year ago when they had $8.75 billion in quarterly earnings! This is akin to asking who among you who had 13-per-cent raise? Perhaps it’s time to raise more taxes from those bank profits.

I could go on, but I’m looking for feedback. I will pursue further columns along this vein if I find that you agree/disagree with my rant. What do you think? Feedback can be sent to bdfox@rogers.com.