Mr. Speaker, I believe this bill's intentions are in the right place. As the sports critic for my party, I believe that we should do much more to help our young athletes succeed, but simply put, I do not understand what, if anything, this bill would do.
I understand that the idea behind it is to make allowances paid to young athletes by not for profit organizations tax free up to a sum of $350 per month, but these are athletes that do not make tremendous amounts of money in the first place. In fact, a typical junior A hockey player, of which I was one, will probably only receive $300 a month from his or her team. During an eight month season, that amounts to only $2,400.
The basic personal exemption rate in Canada is $8,639 per year. That is the amount of money one can earn in a year without having to pay any income tax. When all is said and done and the tax season rolls around, I would be very surprised to see that any of these athletes would have earned enough money from their small allowances to pay any taxes at all. Therefore, I ask what the benefit is here. I do not see one. I believe it is just smoke and mirrors.
Admittedly, the Conservative government has just lowered the basic personal exemption and forced Canadians to pay more taxes, but even with the Tory tax hike, I do not think young Canadian athletes would have extra money from this allowance that would exceed $9,000 a year. It is just not going to add up. If the hon. member is actually concerned about these athletes, he should ask his colleague, the Minister of Finance, not to lower the basic personal exemption by $200 this year.
The bill will also make allowances paid to people on behalf of the hockey player tax free up to $350. This also has a nice ring to it, but again it is very disingenuous and is very much smoke and mirrors.
Take, for instance, Canadians who open up their homes and hearts to billet young athletes who must move away from home to compete. These kind Canadians are the reason that so many young athletes get to follow their dreams. Surely they deserve a break on their taxes, but in fact, they already get one. The Canada Revenue Agency treats the monthly allowance that billeters receive from clubs as non-taxable. It is a good thing too because as a young athlete myself, I probably ate twice as much as the billeters received for an allowance, but admittedly, that may not always be the case.
The Canada Revenue Agency might consider the allowance as taxable income if the family hosts multiple athletes in a businesslike manner with the intent of making money from the venture, but the vast majority of times these allowances are not taxed. Once again I have to wonder what this bill is trying to achieve. Maybe it is just trying to deceive Canadian taxpayers. The bill is attempting to make an allowance that generally is not taxed not taxable. I am all for supporting Canadian athletes but there must be dozens of more tangible and practical ways to do this.
I have some other questions about this bill. What does the hon. member consider to be reasonable expenses? Does he think that the Canada Revenue Agency will share his view on these reasonable expenses? If, for example, an athlete plays hockey for six months of the year, will he get to claim $2,100 or will he get to claim the entire year at $4,800? Why is this aimed only at athletes? Just as with the government's lacklustre budget, there is no consideration here for artists, musicians, writers, performers, or actors.
I feel that the hon. member is trying to move in the right direction and we do need to support our young athletes much more. I am, however, at a great loss as to how this bill would actually help them at all.
This bill is just more smoke and mirrors where athletes, coaches and parents deserve much more. This bill falls far short of the mark. There is so much more the government could do, that this Parliament should do, directly for our young athletes, coaches and parents. I am sorry, but this bill falls far short of the mark.
