Limits in Your Province/Territory. please

[sunnydays]

Rachael, I just have one question...how do you manage to make ends meet??? I don't think I could be a daycare provider under the conditions you described. It is a hard and important job and we all deserve to be able to make a decent living doing it. I understand why you don't sympathize with us in Ontario...but maybe instead of being happy that we are being dragged down to your level...you and others in provinces where things are tough could fight for some changes so that you could be brought up to a level where you could actually make a decent living doing what you love. I don't think it's too much to ask.

[Rachael]

Rachael, I just have one question...how do you manage to make ends meet??? I don't think I could be a daycare provider under the conditions you described. It is a hard and important job and we all deserve to be able to make a decent living doing it. I understand why you don't sympathize with us in Ontario...but maybe instead of being happy that we are being dragged down to your level...you and others in provinces where things are tough could fight for some changes so that you could be brought up to a level where you could actually make a decent living doing what you love. I don't think it's too much to ask.

How do I manage to make ends meet? By going without, like the rest of the Province! LOL You are forgetting that the options you have, we don't. Seasonal lobster fishing, seasonal scallop fishing, IT industry which earns half of the major cities - hence the employment migration West. We manage because we have to!

If you have to pay mortgage to keep your house, power to heat it, water to drink/wash, property taxes, insurance, etc then you learn to get rid of things that are wants not needs - many families have ONE car or use public transport if it's available in their area (not all areas have it), you cook at home, you don't have expensive clothes, your minimize outgoings.

We haven't had a vacation in over 10 years, I don't smoke or drink or go out unless it's for a birthday meal for one of my son's. Christmas my budget is $200 per child MAX, birthday's it's $100. Horrible as it is to say, because I have no family here, I only have to worry about myself and my two sons. Essentially, I get up work, pay my bills and go back to bed.

When my husband died, we had only been here a year and therefore I didn't have the connections which you'd normally hope for in that situation. I was determined to keep my children in the house, in the community, and be here for them which I had been as a stay at home parent. There are only so many changes children can manage at once and having moved continents and lost a parent, I was determined to minimize the others.

I am lucky in the sense, my mortgage is manageable compared to renting prices - bear in mind, we have more than 4 universities, so rental demand is high and expensive. I had to keep the house at all costs or we'd have been in serious trouble.

If I quit the day care and went to work outside the house, I'd be on minimum wage for the first few years anyway - simple, it wouldn't cover the bills if I had min wage x 40 hours or less as here, the min wage jobs are often part-time. By running the day care although the money is awful, I do know that I can deduct a certain percentage of household bills. Without that, I wouldn't make ends meet. If I earning min wage outside the house and wasn't able to claim a percentage of our power, water, etc, I'd have been on the streets years ago.

We make it work because there's no other option - and I am not the only one facing these challenges. I know plenty of two adult households here in the exact same situation.

And - you are rather twisting my words to say I am HAPPY you are being put in the same situation. If you look back, I said it was hard to sympathise with Ontario providers concerns.

Right now, Bill 10 is a maybe. It hasn't passed. So you are facing the potential of the challenges which are our reality. You might be placed in the same situation that the rest of the country is in. I did not once say I was happy your income would be cut but I did say, and stand by my comment, that it's hard to sympathise when we've been it that situation for years. Essentially, you've had it good for a long time, but no one seems to say "Oh well, compared to everyone else, we've had a good run. Now I guess we are in the same boat as the others".

I'm sorry but some people in the wealthier provinces are under this illusion that their costs of living are higher, the client base is only available for a few short years, that Bill 10 will make it impossible to earn a living - and there is the expectation that the whole country is concerned about Bill 10 and it's effects. The reality is, your costs of living are actually far lower than many poorer provinces, our client base is only available for the same time span just for different reasons, we deal with higher turnover and so less stable client bases because of the employment migration out of province too.

As I said, I didn't state I was happy about you being in the same situation but it's is hard to be sympathetic when you are merely being brought into line with the rest of the country - and it's not even a certainty.

Interesting that you view it as "being dragged down" vs the playing field being evened.

It's quite a vicious comment that you view yourself as higher than the rest of us - but very telling.

More so, twisting your own view that we should be more sympathetic to your situation - I didn't see you petitioning for changes for the rest of the county to be brought up to Ontario's level - only when it's you coming down is there noise and concern and expectation we are all sympathetic to your cause. Perhaps, if I'd seen an equal amount of concern for the rest of us being on these limits prior to Bill 10, I'd feel differently.