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Petition in Support of Bill C-310: An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act
(Volunteer Firefighting and Search and Rescue Volunteer Tax Credit)

Canada has 90,000 volunteer firefighters who provide fire and all hazard emergency services to their communities. Many of these individuals receive some form of pay on call, an honorarium, or are given some funding to cover expenses, but they do not draw a living wage from firefighting. About 30% of them pay out of pocket to cover expenses associated with the service they provide to their community. An additional 8,000 search and rescue volunteers also offer critical services.

Without volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers, thousands of communities in Canada would have no fire and emergency response coverage. The tax base just can’t handle the cost of a career department.

In 2013, the federal government initiated a tax credit recognizing these individuals, but that tax credit has not kept up with cost of living. MP Gord Johns has been calling on the federal government to increase this tax credit from $3,000 to $10,000.

In support of this Bill, we are circulating two petitions (an electronic and paper version – both of which can be signed by the same individuals), calling upon the Government of Canada to support Bill C-310 and enact amendments to subsections 118.06(2) and 118.07(2) of the Income Tax Act in order to increase the amount of the tax credits for volunteer firefighting and search and rescue volunteer services from $3,000 to $10,000.

1. An Electronic Petition

An electronic petition is available at this link. The link is shareable and anyone can sign this petition. For your signature to count, you must provide the information requested. If you would like to publicize the e-petition, please find here a poster to encourage community members to sign the e-petition. This petition is available in EN and FR and remains open until December 10. 

2. Printable version of a paper petition

Close to 200 copies of a paper petition are now circulating across Canada. If you are in a position to circulate a petition, please download the petition in EN or FR.  Compile the signatures and return the original signed copy to Gord Johns, MP // House of Commons // Ottawa, ON // K1A 0A1 (no stamp required, please use an envelope). Postage is not required. We encourage you to send a copy to your local MP so that he or she can support your efforts as well.

For ease of reference, the language of both the paper and e-petition read as follows:

PETITION TO THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA 

Whereas:

• Volunteer firefighters account for 71% of Canada’s total firefighting essential first responders;
• In addition, approximately 8,000 essential search and rescue volunteers respond to thousands of incidents every year;
• The tax code of Canada currently allows volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers to claim a $3,000 tax credit if 200 hours of volunteer services were completed in a calendar year;
• This works out to a mere $450 per year, which we allow these essential volunteers to keep of their own income from their regular jobs, $2.25 an hour;
• If they volunteer more than 200 hours, which many do, this tax credit becomes even less;
• These essential volunteers not only put their lives on the line and give their time, training and efforts to Canadians, but they also allow cities and municipalities to keep property taxes lower than if paid services were required;
• Increasing this tax credit would allow these essential volunteers to keep more of their hard-earned money, likely to be spent in the communities in which they live; and
• It would also help retain these volunteers in a time when volunteerism is decreasing.