Mr. Speaker, I do not know if I have changed my mind, but this initiative has received the government's attention, and I congratulate the member on his tenacity with this measure.
Allow me to speak to some of the shortcomings of the bill. First, the private member's bill proposes changes to the Income Tax Act to help mechanics defray the cost of providing their own tools when doing so is a condition of employment.
The changes would allow mechanics to deduct the cost of buying, renting, insuring or maintaining their tools. An income deduction would be available for tools that cost less than $250. That amount may be adjusted according to inflation. Higher tool costs would be subject to some form of capital cost allowance. The allowances would be set by special regulation.
Canadian employers normally provide workers with tools and other resources they need to do their jobs. Canadian workers nonetheless bear job related costs, whether in getting to and from work, buying uniforms or other work clothes, eating away from home or keeping up with trade journals. All Canadians incur costs when they take a job.
The bill aims to recognize that employed mechanics face exceptional work related costs. The Government of Canada understands that tool costs can be significant, particularly at the start of a career.
Today I will put some of these issues in perspective. First I will talk about the cost of tools. We have heard many estimates. Today the member opposite cited an amount of $40,000. When we debated this bill previously I was struck by the wildly different numbers members had proposed in the Chamber. Different members stood and told us a mechanic could pay $10,000 or $25,000 or even $75,000 for their tools.
Well, maybe those are possible. Let us look instead at what is normal. The Canadian Automotive Repairs and Service Council surveyed technicians and apprentices a couple of years ago. They found that half of these mechanics owned some $20,000 worth of tools. But this is just an average. About a third of mechanics said they owned more than $30,000 worth of tools, for example. Either way, whether it is $20,000 or even more, these tools obviously add up to quite a bit of money.
Let us look at it a different way. Let us suppose a mechanic spends $20,000 on tools and uses them over a 40 year career. It is not obvious whether that is a tremendous burden. I do not believe either of those numbers is right. The numbers that make more sense are annual expenditures. Annual costs give us a better sense of affordability. They take into account that tools need to be replaced or updated over time.
A journeyman mechanic who has a basic tool kit probably built it up while learning the trade. How much would he or she need to spend to keep the tools intact and updated? The same Canadian Automobile Repair and Service Council survey I mentioned earlier would suggest that the average expenditure is about $1,500 per year.
Four in ten mechanics say that they spend less than $1,000 per year and 23% of mechanics say that they spend more than $2,500 per year. However there are two key points. The costs are not the same for everyone and one's ability to handle the costs depends on how much money one makes.
The members of this House all know that mechanics are not rich. They do, however, earn a better living than many other workers. Let us try to put it in perspective. In 1996, the average automotive service technician was making about $38,000 a year, not $26,000 as the Bloc Quebecois member mentioned.
In that same year, the average university graduate was making just over $42,000. And people with less than a university degree earned an average of $26,000. These are real numbers, based on the 1996 census.
Mechanics are not rich but they do all right compared to the national averages and compared to tradespeople, like bricklayers and carpenters, who make about $34,000 per year.
Let me go back to the Canadian Automobile Repair and Service Council survey one more time. It asked members to report how much they made. Some 15% said they made less than $25,000 per year, most of them no doubt apprentices, but 13% said they made more than $55,000 per year. Again, the point I make is that everyone's situation is different.
That brings me to another issue. When we recently debated a similar bill I was struck by the fact that all but one of the speakers singled out the impact of tool costs on the number of apprentice mechanics entering the field. I will take a minute to focus on apprentices' tool expenses and their earnings.
I guess the first question is, how much does it cost for a starter toolbox and tools? Well, the CARS Council says it can cost between $3,000 and $4,000. This is just the basic starter kit. The apprentice would add more tools as he or she progressed through the apprenticeship program. During a typical four year apprenticeship, it would not be unheard of to spend $15,000 and sometimes more. So let us compare that to what they earn. The average annual income is about $20,000.
It would certainly be a challenge for an apprentice mechanic to buy $3,000 worth of tools on an annual income of $20,000 per year. We understand that. In some cases the costs might even make someone think twice before signing up to be a mechanic.
I only want to reinforce my point. That this bill fails to take into account the different circumstances faced by different mechanics. At one level, we have apprentices who pay somewhere around $3,000 a year for tools, on an annual salary of $20,000, and we have journeymen spending around $1,500 a year on tools, while they are making $38,000 a year.
At another level we have different journeymen with different incomes and tool expenses. Is that what the member for Beauport—Montmorency—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île-d'Orléans wanted, to help a mechanic earning $60,000 a year write off $500 in tools? Perhaps that is his intention, but what will he tell the plumber or carpenter who must cover similar tool costs out of pocket?
There is merit in the idea behind this private member's bill. The very substantial employment expenses incurred by some employed mechanics are certainly a concern. I would also say that exceptionally high work related expenses should not prevent people from participating in the economy.
However, the bill fails to distinguish between those who can reasonably afford to cover tool costs and those who might really need some help. The government intends to work with representatives from the automobile industry to explore better options to address this issue, particularly with respect to the challenges faced by apprentices. In exploring other options the government hopes to find ways to address some of the shortcomings of the private member's bill. Accordingly, I would ask members to think carefully about this bill before supporting it.