WHEREAS unpaid volunteer fire fighters and first responders are essential for providing adequate emergency services in small and rural communities, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find individuals to volunteer their time; AND WHEREAS unpaid volunteer fire fighters and first responders are not paid for training and providing emergency services, which results in a significant cost savings for the government: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the UBCM lobby the provincial and federal governments to amend the Income Tax Act to provide unpaid volunteer fire fighters and first responders with a tax exemption; AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that for every 50 hours of unpaid volunteer service for practices, training and callouts, volunteer fire fighters and first responders be granted a 500 tax exemption to a maximum of 5,000 on their income tax in recognition of the service they provide.
Ministry of Finance This is an area of federal responsibility. In addition, this suggestion would raise difficult policy issues, including the issue of whether other types of volunteer work should be eligible for a similar exemption.
MINISTER OF FINANCE Emergency service volunteers play a valuable role in our society. They contribute substantially to the security and safety of our country and citizenry, and are sometimes called upon to risk their lives to help their fellow citizens. The important role that these volunteers play is already recognized in Budget 2007 and in the Income Tax Act. - Budget 2007 proposes to provide 1 million over two years to the Canadian arm of the International Association of Fire Fighters through Public Safety Canada to help implement a hazardous material training program that would be available to all first responders including firefighters, police, paramedics and utility workers. - Where public authorities provide honoraria to emergency service volunteers, the first 1,000 is excluded from income. This measure enables public authorities to provide small amounts of compensation to emergency service volunteers without the burden of having to prepare tax information slips. While recognition of the role of emergency service volunteers is already reflected in the Income Tax Act, implementing your proposal would raise a number of fairness concerns. For instance, it would provide emergency service volunteers a tax exemption equivalent to about four months pay at the minimum wage in British Columbia. This would compromise an important principle of the tax system, which is that individuals with comparable amounts of income should pay comparable amounts of tax. Also it would be difficult to justify providing such generous tax assistance only for emergency service volunteers when so many other volunteers provide valuable public services to Canadians without being recognized by the Income Tax Act. It is important that the Government of Canada receive the views of Canadians about the tax system to help ensure that it is as efficient and fair as possible.