Gord Johns on Petitions

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table this petition on behalf of residents from Errington, Hilliers, Parksville and Qualicum Beach in my riding who are calling for support for volunteer firefighters, who account for 83% of Canada's total firefighting essential first responders. In addition, they cite that approximately 8,000 essential search and rescue volunteers respond to thousands of incidents every year, including the floods in my riding recently. They cite that the tax code of Canada currently allows volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers to claim a $3,000 tax credit if they provided 200 hours of volunteer services in a calendar year. That works out to a mere $450 per year that we allow these essential volunteers to keep of their own income, which is about $2.25 an hour. If they volunteer for more than 200 hours, which many do, this tax credit becomes even less. The petitioners are calling upon the Government of Canada to increase this tax exemption from $3,000 to $10,000 to help our essential volunteer firefighters and search and rescue people across the country.