WINNIPEG – Family values haven’t disappeared, they’ve just been pushed away by Canadian institutions, governments and employers, says a family expert.
Robert Glossop, of the Vanier Institute for the Family based in Ottawa, told the Manitoba Women’s Institute annual conference that “if you ask Canadians what they value most, it’s families.”
Surveys show families are more important to people than jobs, wages or political convictions, he said. Over 90 percent of young people when asked say they expect to get married for life and to have children.
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Government doesn’t care
Although individual people value their families, society does not, said Glossop. As proof, he said the federal government got rid of the family allowance payment in 1993. In 1994, the international year of the family, children have been “factored out of the tax system.” He noted that a Canadian family with an annual income of $70,000 and two children will pay the same tax as a family with the same income and no kids.
“It appears the government doesn’t care about what you do with your money – whether you buy a BMW, take a winter vacation in Florida or whether you choose to raise the next generation.”
Employers seldom offer family-oriented benefits such as leave to attend sick children, elder care or more flexible hours of work.
“Most of the large employers that have introduced family care have large female work forces.”
While Glossop agreed such benefits could be a hardship for small rural businesses to offer, he suggested the government could give tax incentives or that small businesses could band together in networks to buy benefits more cheaply.
Glossop said employers should consider these benefits because women are going to stay in the work force. They will stay because families need two incomes to buy what one used to do.
Also, “the state has a vested interest in women working.” In 1985, women paid $10 billion to federal and provincial governments. That was 25 percent of all the tax collected that year from employment earnings.
The other reason society encourages women to keep working is the value of the consumer’s dollar. As more dollars buy more goods, the economy stays healthier. That’s also why divorce has propped up business since each separation requires another household to form with all the accompanying appliances and goods.
But in return for this economic boost, society should be assisting families, Glossop said.
“I’m uncomfortable with people who say ‘they had the kids, let them pay for them.’ In effect we call upon a family to do what a clan used to do.”
Raising families has been a collective responsibility and always has been until the past 15 years, said Glossop. Canada can’t just shrug it off since it will end up paying for this neglect in family violence, poor health and more crime. Glossop said although there are government programs to assist desperate situations, there is no support for average families.
“The fence at the top of the cliff saves more people than the ambulance at the bottom.”
