Awhile back, Merely Me asked if I would share some info. about the Canadian Health Care System. I am happy to try and help with understanding the Canadian health care system, hope it helps!
Our taxes are paid on 3 levels; 1. (The Mayor is highest-ranking office of each city.) Municipal, which you pay based on the rates set by the city you live in, pay for local infrastructure; roads, parks, recreation programs, local politicians, & city staff salaries & benefits, etc. This will be different for each city, depending on size, needs, etc. Our property tax which again can be different as not every city has always set rates at current market value of your property. Most are trying to make that change now and for many who have lived for many years at a level that was much lower are finding it difficult. The city I live in has the highest property taxes in our province, even higher than our largest city, Toronto! Houses cost more in Toronto but taxes are less as they started phasing in market value several years ago.
2, Provincial (Premier is elected official of the provinces which, would be similar to the office of Governor of a State); again there are different needs for each province so amounts paid or collected will be different. Also, a largely populated province like Ontario will have more people and more infrastructures; this is where health care costs, education, and most social service programs are legislated. Money is collected from provincial sales taxes which are part of most everything we buy, provincial income tax, health tax based on your income, grants from the federal government and money collected from municipalities for education (which is part of our municipal tax but, administered by the Prov.) also any programs that had been part of the prov. budget but, downloaded to the cities. Confused yet?
3. Federal (Prime Minister would be the elected official similar to your President), who knows what those jokers are doing? The previous Liberal gov't left a large surplus, balanced the budget for the first time in recent memory, and started to pay down the outstanding federal debt. The man largely responsible, Minister of Finance, became Prime Minister through our electoral process, after the previous Prime Minister retired. We do not have an eight-year maximum time for the federal leader to hold office. The last election left us with a minority Conservative gov't who have managed to spend the country into a huge debt. Money is collected through the federal income tax, goods & services tax, unemployment insurance & Canada Pension Program, tariffs & a myriad of other taxes that are built into the cost of sevice or items that we don't know the amount unless you research it eg. the cost of gas & cigarettes (I've heard cigarettes are over $10/pack now! Glad I quit 17 years ago when I had my first child) are mostly tax. The Federal gov't is responsible for all national programs; Defense, Immigration, postal services, employment insurance, our national pension plan & a number of others. Money is distributed to the provinces based on need. Need is determined by who knows?, what the formula is at the time, how well a Premier is at pleading the provinces case for the need for my dollars.
