Citizen Choice initiative aims to allow personalized funding decisions
Residents of Ontario will now be able to allocate their taxes to categories of their choosing, or to opt-out completely. For example, if you don’t drive much, you won’t have to fund road-building and maintenance. If you don’t like the cost of bureaucratic salaries, you don’t have to fund them. If you aren’t sick, don’t fund healthcare.
When questioned about who he consulted before making this change, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said, “We definitely did some consultation, I talked to a group of libertarians and they seemed very supportive of the idea, so we went ahead with it.”
Mostly everyone else in the province is worried about the consequences.
“It seems like a hasty decision that may have unintended consequences. How will these services be provided effectively if the funding is not guaranteed?” asked one member of the opposition party.
When asked whether he had considered that funding for his salary could be in jeopardy, Ford responded, “Well, no, that didn’t occur to me. I guess I didn’t think that far ahead.”
“At least now people will no longer be forced to fund crazy rightist organizations,” Andrea Horwath, leader of the opposition, said in an interview with The Contrarion.
Featured photo by Alora Griffiths/ The Ontarion