Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and privilege to table this petition on behalf of petitioners from Parksville, Qualicum, Hilliers, Coombs and Errington, and it is timely, given there was a massive fire on Highway 4 yesterday at the Whiskey Creek gas station.
The petitioners, in support of volunteer firefighters, cite that 83% of Canada's total firefighting essential needs are supported by first responders and volunteer firefighters. They get about a $3,000 tax credit for 200 volunteer hours completed in a calendar year. This works out to a mere $450 per year that we allow these essential volunteers to keep of their income from their regular jobs or small businesses. It works out to about $2.25 an hour.
The petitioners call on the government to increase this tax credit, which would allow these essential volunteers to keep more of their hard-earned money, likely to be spent in the communities in which they live. Also, these essential volunteers, like I cited yesterday, not only put their lives on the line and give their time, training and efforts to Canadians, but also allow cities and municipalities to keep property taxes lower.
They call for the increase of the tax exemption to go from $3,000 to $10,000, which would be the honourable thing to do, given approximately 8,000 essential search and rescue volunteers respond to thousands of incidents every year.