IT'S THE TAXES STUPID!

 It’s Not Just Income Inadequacy — It’s Government Taking Too Much

Trevor Hancock, writing in the Times Colonist, tells us the root of food insecurity isn’t affordability but “income inadequacy.” He points to inequality and the need for government to step in and redistribute more.

But let’s pause here. Every time the left sees a problem, the answer is always the same: more government, more taxes, more control. Follow that road far enough and eventually there’s nothing left outside of government — just citizens stripped of choice, dependent on the very system that created the crisis in the first place.

The Missing Piece: Disposable Income

Hancock notes that Canadians on average pay 40–44% of their income in taxes. But he downplays what that means on the ground. When all three levels of government — city hall, Victoria, Ottawa — keep ratcheting up taxes, fees, levies, and “carbon surcharges,” what’s left in the family budget after payday?

Disposable income is the real story. Not just wages. Not just “pre-tax inequality.” It’s the after-tax, after-fee, after-inflation reality that leaves households squeezed.

When you’re taxed on your income, taxed when you buy, taxed when you heat your home, and taxed when you own property, it’s no wonder families end up at food banks.

The Food Bank Squeeze

Food banks exist because people are caught in a triple bind:
1. Stagnant wages (Hancock’s point).
2. Rising taxes and fees (the ignored point).
3. Soaring costs of essentials (the everyday point).

But notice who always gets a pass. Government. Politicians talk endlessly about greedy corporations and the wealthy one percent — while steadily taking a bigger cut from the other 99%.

Political Choice — Or Political Control?

Hancock quotes the World Inequality Report: “inequality is not inevitable, it is a political choice.” True enough. But here’s the other side: expanding government at every turn is also a political choice.

If more government intervention were the answer, Canadians should be thriving. Instead, after decades of rising taxation and spending, we have record debt, worsening inequality, and food bank use at historic highs.

The uncomfortable truth is this: the state has become less a safety net and more a parasite. The bigger it grows, the less room ordinary citizens have to breathe.

The Way Forward

Yes, wages matter. Yes, inequality matters. But until governments at all levels rein in their own appetite for tax-and-spend policies, no amount of redistribution will fix the problem. It just shifts poverty around while making everyone more dependent on the state.

Canadians don’t need more government. They need less. What they need most is the freedom to keep more of what they earn — and the discipline from their leaders to live within their own means, just like the rest of us.