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House Hansard - 311

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 8, 2024 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 311 - May/8/24
Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)
Mr. Speaker, it is a huge honour to table this petition on behalf of residents from Ucluelet, including fire chief Rick Geddes. This petition was obviously done before the budget, but this is on behalf of 120,000 volunteer firefighters and 10,000 search and rescue volunteers who are calling on the federal government to increase the volunteer firefighter and search and rescue tax credit from $3,000 to $10,000. They did not quite get that $10,000, but it was doubled. It is a privilege to table this petition, and I want to thank members from each party who tabled a petition in support of my bill, Bill C-310.
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Context: House Hansard - 311 - May/8/24
Mrs. Shannon Stubbs (Lakeland, CPC)
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to present a petition on behalf of the good people of Hairy Hill in Lakeland. It calls on the government to increase the tax credits for volunteer firefighting and search and rescue services. Volunteer firefighters make up about 71% of Canada's total firefighting essential first responders, and approximately 8,000 essential search and rescue volunteers respond to thousands of incidents every year. Most rural communities and regions, like those all across Lakeland, completely rely on local volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers. Those essential volunteers put their lives on the line and sacrifice their time, training and heroism on behalf of their fellow Canadians and allow cities and municipalities to keep property taxes lower than paid services. Increasing the tax credit would allow those essential volunteers to keep more of their hard-earned money in the communities where they live and would help retain volunteers at a time when volunteerism is decreasing. The petitioners call on the Government of Canada to support Bill C-310, an act to amend the Income Tax Act, to increase the amount of the tax credit for volunteer firefighting and search and rescue volunteer services.
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