Centibillionaire Lives Matter

By Nate Smelle

AT THIS POINT, it should come as no surprise to anyone living in Bancroft—or anywhere in Ontario, for that matter—that affordability has become one of the defining issues of our time. The Carney government's federal budget and the province's fall economic statement only reinforced what most of us already know: governments at all levels are scrambling to respond to an economic landscape shaped by U.S. tariffs, inflation, high unemployment, and the increased cost of living putting a squeeze on households and municipalities alike.

Highlighting this observation on a local level, Bancroft's Mayor Paul Jenkins and Hastings Highlands' former mayor Vic A. Bodnar have both recently addressed the unavoidable issue of affordability. Jenkins' remarks at the Nov. 10 council meeting reignited the conversation capturing the tension this crisis creates. Then last week, Bodnar appeared as delegation at the meeting held in Hastings Highlands on Nov. 19, calling on council to reduce its composition by two members as a cost saving measure.

Jenkins' comments at the start of the meeting struck a chord, as he acknowledged the promises of stimulus, support, and strategies to spur growth coming from the federal and provincial levels. He also noted the growing number of voices of opposition pointing to ballooning government debt and the worsening affordability crisis. Yet the mayor's most accurately pointed observation was also the simplest: incomes have not kept pace with rising cost of living.

For several years, I have been calling on employers to do their part to end the affordability crisis by simply paying their workers a living wage. As someone who has worked in the same profession for more than a dozen years that is still not a member of this exclusive club earning $22.20 per hour in Hastings County, it's fair to say that my advocacy on behalf of fair work for fair wages has failed.

Reflecting on the mayors' observations and a recent conversation with Craig Pickthorne of the Ontario Living Wage Network, I started to wonder whether my approach to confronting this crisis was all wrong. Maybe, instead of wasting more of our time trying to improve the lives of working class people, we should be investing more time, money, and resources in elevating the quality of life of the hard working centibillionaire class that has also been forced to make sacrifices during these troublesome economic times.

While nary a day goes by where there isn't some reporter on television talking to people about how the high cost of living is forcing them to choose between paying their rent and buying groceries or potentially lifesaving medicine, the “lamestream media” barely says a word about the day-to-day anguish of the most affluent in our society. In fact, over the past week I have been searching the internet relentlessly for articles, reports, or anything at all about how centibillionaires are struggling with the affordability crisis and I have yet to find a single one.

So, why the silence surrounding the suffering of centibillionaires? They are after all just human beings. Like us, they require healthy food to eat, clean water to drink, fresh air to breathe, and a safe place to call home.

As these life-bestowing elements of existence continue to become more scarce as the Earth heats up and the global population grows, we all need to step up to the plate and do what we can to look out for one another. Given the rate at which our finite supply of natural resources are being exploited, the reality is that centibillionaires can no longer afford to maintain the basic quality of life they currently endure unless the rest of us start making big sacrifices. 

Therefore, in order to maintain the status quo, efficiencies will need to be found and cuts will need to be made.

So why not start at home? As it is often said, “Think globally and act locally.” 

To help illustrate the magnitude of the action we must take to minimize the suffering of our centibillionaire brothers and sisters, it is worth having a look back at Bancroft's 2025 budget. With a total expenditure plan of a merely $11,539,022 in 2025, you might be asking: how any number of cuts to this budget could make a difference in the life of even one centibillionaire, let alone all 18 of them on the planet today? And of course you would be correct in questioning this math. However, considering there are 444 municipalities in Ontario — each with an annual budget in the range of millions to tens of billions of dollars — together, our combined efforts can make a difference. Not enough to help protect the entire centibillionaire class of 18 from the fallout of the affordability crisis. But it would be a decent start. 

Some of the major expenditures in the 2025 budget include: roads ($3,381,392); general government ($2,022,887); policing costs ($1,454,567); waste ($1,180,073); parks, recreation, facilities ($1,017,947); fire and mutual aid ($957,754); and, the North Hastings Community Centre arena ($497,405).

Funds were also allocated in the budget for grants to assist several community organizations, including: the Canadian Peace Museum ($5,000); Tweed and Company ($5,000); Art Gallery of Bancroft ($2,600); North Hastings Community Economic

Development Committee ($2,250); Experience Summer Camp ($2,000); Stewards of Bancroft Eagles Nest Park ($1,363); and, Bird's Creek Minor Ball ($1,000).

If we strike out all the community grants that will provide $18,673 to go towards the Town of Bancroft's portion of the Global Centibillionaire Relief Fund. Shutting down the North Hastings Community Centre arena would bring the town's total contribution up significantly to $516,078. By getting residents to shoulder the cost of waste management services, our tally takes another big jump to $1,696,551. Closing the parks and recreational facilities brings the total annual subsidy to $2,714,498.

Acknowledging that out of concern for public safety there would most likely be some resistance to completely cutting the funding for roads, the local Fire Department, and OPP, the municipality would be wise to keep these public services operational, for now. Still, many major efficiencies will need to be found if we truly desire to support our centibillionaire friends in their time of need.

So there you go. By envisioning the potential of one municipality committed to this campaign of compassion, we can see how impactful it could be if all 444 got on board. Crunching a few rough numbers, as a province, we could muster more than $1.2-billion to fund the well-being of centibillionaires worldwide. 

This may seem to be a massive annual donation at first, but when you split that money up among the 18 it only provides each individual with $66,957,617.30 — not nearly enough to survive in today's turbulent economy.

Needless to say, but an even bigger sacrifice by a much greater percentage of the population will be required to bring about the change they want to see in the world. That is why henceforth, anyone with a net worth less than $100-million will have their annual income reduced to the same level of someone earning minimum wage.

Through these simple measures, as individuals and communities we can continue to uplift our centibillionaires and preserve the status quo.

Or, we could do something completely different.