519-646-2222Do the Maths
Draw your own conclusions from statistical data that is readily available, largely from government sources – just do the maths.
According to the CRA, about 29,000,000 Canadians filed income tax returns for the tax year 2022.
According to the CRA the average (mean) income for those filers was $54,000.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (“CFIB”) informs us that 68% of the workforce works for small businesses
The Fraser Institute reported in the year 2015 that more than 20% of the workforce works for the government – that figure is now closer to 25%
It is estimated that almost 50% of your income goes to pay for some form of taxation.
Of the 29,000,000 tax filers in Canada only 16,000,000 have full time jobs.
The total population of Canada is now over 40,000,000, more than 10,000,000 have no income – in fairness some are children.
The Canadian Mint reports that there is only about $115,000,000,000 of Canadian currency (money) in circulation.
The Canadian Bankers Association has removed credit card statistics from their website – however, it is estimated that there are more than 80,000,000 bank issued credit cards in circulation in Canada.
Using data, now redacted, by the Canadian Bankers Association, it is estimated that Canadians charged almost $1,000,000,000,000 on those cards in 2022.
Canadian consumer debt has exploded in the past decade, and especially in the last five years, to approaching $4,000,000,000,000 including mortgage debt.
In 2013 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that Canadian real estate was overvalued by 60% – that was before the explosive increase in prices of the past five years.
According to the CFIB 20% of small businesses are likely to close due in part to their inability to repay CEBA loans.
The CFIB also reported that 50% of small business are not yet back to pre-lockdown sales levels.
The average cost of a two bedroom apartment in London, Ontario, is $2,400 per month.
Russia has a population of about 143,500,000 and has about 10,000 homeless people, compared to Canada with over 230,000 homeless people per year.
The average cost of groceries for a Family of four is $1,400 per month.
According to the Government of Canada the official poverty line is 50% of the Median Income (or about $20,000 p/a before taxes) – some 20,000,000 Canadians have incomes (or no income) below the poverty line.
Canada’s Federal Debt is at almost $1,200,000,000,000 – your family owes $30,000 per person.
Ontario’s Provincial Debt is at almost $400,000,000,000 – your family owes $27,586 per person.
Draw your own conclusions about what direction the economy is headed towards, but a simple breakdown of the data available suggests that every person in Ontario, including minors, owes about $157,586 in some form of debt – an amount equal to about four times the national median income (-$40,000).
And if all the money, produced by the Canadian Mint were evenly distributed we would each have $2,875 to pay it with. That, my friends, is called “financial literacy”.