Taxes eat more income than food, home; Despite government boasts on cutting, families paid six per cent more on taxes
Times Colonist (Victoria)
December 23, 2008
By: Eric Beauchesne

Canadian families pay more in personal taxes than they do on either shelter or food, and spend more on their pets than they do on child care.

Those are among the revelations in Statistics Canada's latest annual report on household expenditures.

Despite the tax-cut boasts of governments, Canadian families paid six per cent more on average in personal income taxes last year, which remained the single largest expense for families, even ahead of keeping a roof over their heads.

In total, households spent an average of $69,950 in 2007, up 3.3 per cent from 2006, Statistics Canada said in its report on family expenditures, noting that the increase was also more than a full percentage point above the 2.2 per cent increase in the cost of living last year….

Spending on shelter, the second largest expenditure, rose 5.1 per cent to an average of $13,640, in large part due to a more than 10 per cent increase in mortgage interest rates….

The report, however, showed that pet expenses rose by nearly 10 per cent to an average $432 per household, exceeding the average $330 in child-care expenses per household, which was up by just $1 or 0.3 per cent.

Average pet expenses have exceeded child-care expenses for some time, noted Snider, explaining that reflects the fact that a greater proportion of households have pet expenses than have child care expenses, boosting the overall average.

If limited to households with child-care expenses, the average spent is $3,060, while for those with pet expenses the average is just $800.

…. But how much a family spends, and on what and what proportion of their budget it eats up varied widely by income.

For example, the one-fifth of households with the lowest income spent an average of $22,340 in 2007 on the basics of food, shelter and clothing, which accounted for 52 per cent of their total spending, while personal taxes, at $577, accounted for a mere three per cent.

In contrast, the top fifth of households spent an average of $143,360 on the basics of food, shelter and clothing, which, however, was just 28 of their family budget, while personal taxes, at $41,895, accounted for 29 per cent of their total spending….

2007 HOUSEHOLD SPENDING

  • Newfoundland: $55,007
  • Prince Edward Island: $55,574
  • Nova Scotia: $59,987
  • New Brunswick: $58,205
  • Quebec: $57,308
  • Ontario: $76,654
  • Manitoba: $63,303
  • Saskatchewan: $63,944
  • Alberta: $85,912
  • British Columbia: $72,621
  • Yukon: $76,997
  • Northwest Territories: $89,075
  • Nunavut: $73,747

SPENDING BY CITY

  • St. John's, N.L.: $67,276
  • Charlottetown: $59,716
  • Halifax: $70,961
  • Saint John, N.B.: $67,250
  • Quebec City: $64,053
  • Montreal: $59,554
  • Toronto: $87,168
  • Winnipeg: $67,029
  • Regina: $71,070
  • Calgary: $94,371
  • Edmonton: $85,749
  • Vancouver: $74,460
  • Victoria: $84,515
  • Whitehorse: $78,884

SOURCE: Statistics Canada