The Government of Saskatchewan is providing a $3000 tax credit for volunteer firefighters, and volunteer first responders, starting in the 2020 tax year.
The tax credit will only be available to those who have 200 hours, or more, of volunteer work. But according to Doug Lapchuk, President of the Saskatchewan Volunteer Firefighters Association, that number won’t be hard for volunteers to get to.
“Anybody who is a volunteer firefighter, as a general rule, from the time that you are home to the time you leave for your normal job, you are on call. So it’s very easy to achieve,” said Lapchuck. “At my home department we do 100 plus calls a year so it isn’t hard just on the call side either.”
Bin Lu, the superintendent for Regina’s a volunteer first responders, thinks this tax credit will be a big help getting more volunteers in smaller communities.
“Definitely. Like in Saskatchewan, we need volunteers, because we’re not like other provinces that have so much resources,” said Lu. “It will actually be easier for us to recruit people. We can say, ‘hey, we won’t be able to offer you money, but you know as a thank-you, you can get this tax credit,’ which is great.”
According to Donna Harpauer, Saskatchewan’s Finance Minister, the tax credit is more about acknowledging the time and effort put in by the province’s volunteer first responders and firefighters, rather than incentivizing more volunteers, although she hopes that happens too.
“I really don’t know if it will be an incentive if you’ll stick your hand up and say I wanna be a volunteer because then I get a tax credit but hopefully it does,” said Harpauer. “But it is more so to recognize the fact that they are giving up their time. They take a lot of training and it’s all on their own dime and time and I think this is more to recognize the fact that people are willing to do that. They’re so important to our communities and this is more of a thank-you and covers some of their expenses.
According to Lapchuk the acknowledgement of what he and the 3300 plus other volunteer firefighters he represents is a good stepping stone to increasing the awareness of their work.
“It’s nice that they’re giving us a tax credit, I really like the idea. It’s definitely a positive,” said Lapchuk. “This tax credit is a step towards recognizing and acknowledging the work that our volunteers do.”
“Not that we are any better than anybody else, but for years we haven’t received recognition and this is a form of recognition and it’s very important for our members to get acknowledgement for what we do.”
