Learning Centre
Health, housing, family and estates, scams, and help for newcomers.
- Advance Care Planning in Canada: Who Decides About Your Health Care, and Which Documents Name Them
Advance care planning means choosing, while still capable, who will make health and personal care decisions if a person cannot, and recording that person's wishes. Each province sets its own documents and names, such as the representation agreement in British Columbia and the power of attorney for personal care in Ontario. These documents are separate from a power of attorney for money, and separate from the forms Service Canada and the CRA use. - CRA, Service Canada, and grandparent scams: the signs that actually tell them apart
The real Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) may ask for your Social Insurance Number on the phone to confirm who you are, so that request alone does not show a call is a scam. The clearer signs are a demand for payment by gift card, cryptocurrency, or e-Transfer, a threat of arrest, and a text message that claims to be from the CRA. Hanging up and calling back on a number you found yourself is the check the CRA describes. - Helping a Parent with OAS, CPP, and the CRA: What Each Permission Allows
Service Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) each keep their own record of who may help with a person's file. A consent form lets an adult child talk to Service Canada about a parent's OAS, GIS, and CPP, but it does not let them apply or change payments. Fuller authority comes from a trustee agreement or a legal document, and a parent's online sign-in stays with the parent. - What a Long-Term Care Bed Costs: How BC, Ontario, and Alberta Set the Resident's Share
In publicly funded long-term care, the province sets what the resident pays. British Columbia charges up to 80% of after-tax income, Ontario charges a daily rate that can be reduced for low income, and Alberta sets a maximum daily accommodation charge. BC and Ontario both start from net income on the Notice of Assessment, which includes OAS and the GIS.