Tax system a better way to help working poor

Re: “Minimum-wage backlash growing among Tims faithful,” Jan. 10. Already, we are seeing the negative effects of the minimum-wage law in Ontario on various businesses and employees, as noted in the article on Tim Hortons and in reports on other businesses.

Historically, the very people whom government aims to assist with minimum-wage laws have been the ones who mostly feel the negative impacts of those laws.

What to do? It certainly isn’t fair to have working people living below the poverty line — a term we politically correct Canadians don’t like to use. (LICO, low income cutoff.).

In Canada, the poverty line (slap my wrist!) is defined as about $18,000 for one and $22,000 for two. The basic income-tax deduction federally is $11,365.

Why is government taxing working people below its own defined poverty line?

It seems to me a better way than minimum wages for dealing with low income would be to raise the basic deduction to at least $25,000. To make it revenue neutral for our wasteful government, spread the loss proportionately from income earners of less than $25,000, across all other higher tax brackets.

It would be interesting to see the accountants calculate that amount, and the impact it would have on higher tax brackets. And would there be a resultant law of unintended consequences? Mike Spence Victoria