Are discounts for ‘older Canadians’ fair?

Here’s a fraught topic for seasoned adults: discounts. Do older Canadians need them? In many cases, it’s taking money away from those more in need.

One of the pleasant little surprises when you hit 60 or 65 is access to the occasional discount on various goods and services. Do your banking, there’s often a reduced rate when you’ve reached, you know, a certain age. Go to a movie, there’s a ‘seniors discount’ (too bad about the s-word, but what are you going to do?).

The thing is – are those discounts really needed, or warranted? Are discounts fair to other people using those services or consuming those goods?

A couple of years ago, Kingston, Ontario explored the possibility of dropping “age-based discounts” and replacing them with means-tested discounts. CBC has that story.  More recently, a column in the Ottawa Citizen suggested that fare discounts for older Canadians using public transit was… well, not fair, especially considering that older Canadians as a group are better off financially than other age groups.

The problem of course, is this: how do you test those means, and implement the results? If the devil is in the details, those are some pretty important details. While many retired, soon-to-be retired, or still-working older Canadians don’t need the discounts, others do, and to cut them off from saving a bit of money on a tight budget would add financial stress to their lives.

That said, most older Canadians are aware of and concerned with the social implications of a greying population. When the proportion of working-age individuals compared to retired Canadians drops, that puts financial strain on those workers raising families and feeding the economy. Yes, retirees feed the economy through taxes and consumerism, but not to the same degree as when we were working full-time.

Canadians benefit from living in a relatively egalitarian society, where our taxes pay for the common good (including, of course, health care). Many older Canadians with means do not need discounts on services that put pressure on the overall balance sheet for Canada. (That said, if discounts are offered by business or other commercial entities, use them. They are part of a business model, and are implemented or withdrawn according to those considerations).

But we support the initiative to limit discounts to older Canadians for public services (and goods), as long as there is fair and proper means-testing, which also means sometimes erring on the side of the status quo.