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Letter: Got hammered by COVID-19? Too bad — B.C. recovery benefit based on 2019 taxes

'So much for considering the real-time concerns and financial stresses of the pandemic here in 2020'
Money
Photograph via Getty Images

The Editor,

Oh yes, apply from Dec. 18 for the B.C. Recovery Benefit. 

Wait a minute, just a thought here, if you lived financially OK in 2019, but got financially hammered during the COVID-19 pandemic, don’t bother applying. It was announced by the finance minister that they don’t care about what financial situations we might be in now because of the pandemic - only that during 2019 we had problems.  

They want us to use our 2019 tax returns to justify the benefits. So much for considering the real-time concerns and financial stresses of the pandemic here in 2020. So much for NDP promises. 

I’m thinking in their business of politics it’s referred to as a “falsehood.” Some of us might call it simply a “lie” or, at a minimum, a “limited and convenient construction of truth.” 

Just when I started believing that the BC NDP government was here for the people of B.C., it’s once again become clear their truths remain a construction of convenience.  

Michael Sonntag, Coquitlam