Some people bemoan foreign workers' tendency to send money home to support their struggling families.
“That money should be spent in Canada to bolster our sputtering economy, not leaked out to other economies!” the tired old argument goes.
Meanwhile, no one seems to have a problem with Canadians who abandon the country for half the year — longer if the law would allow them to — starving small-town economies of desperately needed economic activity.
Winter is tough enough for a community like Sundre, which sees its numbers of visitors drop to nearly nil at this time of year. But to add insult to injury, a fair portion of the local population — which largely represents the lifeblood of local business, especially during the slowest time of year — starves those businesses by not setting foot in them for months on end.
I'm Canadian — don't get me wrong. I fully understand the desire to find warm beaches during our cold, bleak winters. Anyone who works has arguably earned at least that much.
But to abandon my country for half the year and expect to have all services available to me whenever I need them? The thought would never cross my mind.
Oh sure, snowbirds pay their taxes, which apparently helps to put their conscience at ease. Meanwhile, snowbirds — who according to statistics are almost exclusively well-off retired seniors — deny literally billions of dollars to our economy every year by spending in places like Florida and Mexico.
According to the Canadian Snowbird Association itself, snowbirds make their presence strongly felt in the U.S., where they spent $5 billion in 2012 just in the big-four sunshine states — Florida, Arizona, Texas and California — alone.
That's $5 billion — in just one year in just four destination states not even including Mexico, meaning that figure is actually much higher — denied struggling small-town businesses that would benefit immensely from such an infusion of capital.
Again, no one in his or her right mind could argue against a several week vacation reprieve in the sun during the winter.
But half of the year seems rather excessive, to put it mildly. Still, that's not enough for some snowbirds, who would actually, given the chance, stay even longer as indicated by efforts to introduce an eight-month retiree visa.
In that case, might as well just sell all your property in Canada and move full-time to Mexico, where that dollar carries so much further and you can live like royalty.
But oh wait, it sure is convenient to be able to come home whenever the services offered here are needed.
Meanwhile, low-income families and single earners who obviously cannot afford a vacation property on the beach — and most likely never will — are left with the burden of supporting local businesses with what little money they even have available to them.
At least foreign workers, who by the way also pay their taxes, remain in Canada year-round and continually support local businesses more than those who seek warmer temperatures for months on end.
If the Canadian government cares one iota about supporting small business in this country, it will not consider even for a second allowing any Canadians a further extended leave of absence, so to speak, and should instead perhaps rather be looking at reducing the retiree visa to four months or less.
