Mr. Mark Maxson (Director, Employment and Education, Personal Income Tax Division, Tax Policy Branch, Department of Finance) at the Finance Committee

Thank you.

This is an existing deduction that allows tradespeople to deduct up to $500 for tools that are required to do their jobs, over the amount of the Canada employment credit. The proposal in budget 2023 is to double that amount from $500 to $1,000, so these are employed tradespeople who are required to purchase tools in order to do their job.