Mr. Speaker, this year's budget announced an increase in the emergency services volunteer tax free allowance. The difficulty is that unless they receive remuneration for their services, volunteers cannot claim any tax deduction. Typically urban volunteer firefighters receive some form of remuneration while rural firefighters do not.
Why is the government treating rural volunteer firefighters as second class cousins compared to urban firefighters? Will the minister offer a tax deduction to rural firefighters as well?