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| This is an Ootek boat. |
Louis Shalako
I am moving on to a new phase of my life.
It's about time, too.
After almost thirty years, my life on ODSP, the
Ontario Disability Support Program pension, will end. I will have my freedom
from restrictive guidelines, and never have to report my income, mileage and
expenses, insofar as it relates to employment or business or any other form of
income, ever again. I will still have to do income tax returns, but I am doing that now—and
they don’t ask to look into your bank account each and every month, either.
As far as that goes, I have some basic skills in
book-keeping and accounting, hanging onto all relevant receipts and stuff like
that. I was already running it like a business.
Within a month of my 64th birthday, an
envelope landed in the mailbox. It was a handful of forms and a few sheets of
instructions. It was not real dense and there was minimal fine print. The
social workers downtown had the forms mostly filled out—there were some options,
a few questions, and a date and a signature.
...yes, I am sure they'll be glad to see me go.
I have applied for the Canada Pension Plan. Over the
years, I did make contributions, although not so much while on disability. I
applied for Old Age Security, and then there is GIS, the Guaranteed Income
Supplement. There is also ‘GAINS’, which I take to be the Guaranteed Annual
Income Supplement, which you do not have to actually apply for.
Okay, I already get the Trillium Benefit, a provincial
benefit. I already get the HST rebate, a combined federal/provincial sales tax
rebate. I am already getting the Climate Action Incentive benefit. Last year I
got a one-time housing top-up benefit of $500.00. I wouldn’t mind seeing more
of that from any and all levels of government. There is some kind of Canadian
Workers Benefit, but so far I haven’t seen anything from that. The government has at least been talking about dental benefits for seniors, I don't know too much about that, but almost anything is good, right...
I do still have a part-time job, making pizza dough,
and the minimum wage will rise up to $16.65 per hour on October 1, 2023.
There is a labour shortage, and I do have other
skills, including construction and demolition, stuff like that. A person could
drive cab or work private security, where the wages and benefits are not that
good, but having some kind of existing base income is very helpful in this
regard.
If I’m not careful, I’ll end up making twenty-five
bucks an hour, making myself indispensable in pretty short order, and probably
running the place before long…a local weekly news outlet recently advertised
for a full-time journalist. I have to admit I thought about it, but I did not
apply.
The family business comes first, essentially, whether it's much of a choice, that is a good question which I cannot really answer, not even to my own satisfaction sometimes.
***
I suppose I have a few options and that is always good—my
mother just bought an old camper trailer for what, six grand or so. Her and the
step-dad have already taken it camping up at the Pinery, although I don’t know
about living in such a thing year-round.
For that, you might be better off to consider Florida…as
far as all these pensions and supplements go, we will find out in due time.
There is some uncertainty, and no one knows when the
landlord will get a brainstorm and try and get a few of us out of here due to
rent control and their own natural inclinations.
I have no control over that, but running out and
buying a new car, a trip to Mexico, or buying a fucking sea kayak or something dumb like that, will just have to wait
for a while…right? Let’s see what happens first. Okay, so the plan is to do nothing...just sit and wait and see what happens for a while.
We're not making any sudden moves here, ladies and gentlemen.
Odds are, it will all add up to roughly the same as
the ODSP pension, and in that sense it represents a basic income, in terms of myself and other senior citizens, who presumably have earned it in some way, shape or form.
I figure I have, that is for sure.
END
Louis Shalako has books, stories and audiobooks on Google Play.
Check out this other story here.
Thank you for reading.
