I've only ever worked for two companies so far in my life. The first company I worked for never had yearly cost of living raises to offset inflation. In the 10 years I was there I think we got a 5% cost of living raise once. I haven't been at my current company long enough to find out if they do it or not. Is it all that common for people to get yearly cost of living raises? Or is that just for business professionals who work downtown?
I've never heard anybody I know who works in an industrial job talk about getting a yearly cost of living raise and these are generally the people who are going to be hit hardest by the constant increases along with seniors and fixed income families and probably renters who will eat the cost of the property tax in a rent hike.
I understand that a raise will technically result in an income tax increase because it's inseperable but I thought property taxes were dictated by the value of your home. So the assessments we got a few months ago show that my home is worth more, and accordingly my property taxes just went up by $200. So if my home is worth half of the average home value ($447,500) they're using for the $106 figure, my increase should only be for $53?
As for no longer having to pay for Alberta Health Care, isn't it a fairly common employment benefit that a company will pay a large portion if not all of a workers Alberta Health premium? So removing that tax would mostly benefit businesses?