Government Proposes Tax Credit for SAR, Firefighting Volunteers
Prince George, B.C. – The provincial government says it plans to introduce a new tax credit for B.C.’s volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers as part of its 2017 budget.
Minister of State for Emergency Preparedness Naomi Yamamoto and Finance Minister Michael de Jong today announced that, subject to legislative approval, thousands of volunteers throughout the province may be eligible for a $3,000 non-refundable tax credit, providing a benefit up to $151.80 each year.
“B.C.’s volunteer firefighters and search and rescue members play a critical role in the safety of British Columbians,” said Yamamoto. “(They) leave the comfort of home to rush out into often dangerous and unpredictable conditions, in every type of environment, to provide a beacon of hope to both those lost and to the families waiting at home. The tax credit announced today is a small token of thanks for their selfless service, and for the incredible contributions these men and women provide to their communities.”
The new tax credit will be available for volunteers who provide at least 200 hours of volunteer service to a volunteer fire department, an eligible search and rescue organization or a combination of both. The credit will be available for the 2017 tax year.
Combined with a similar federal credit, volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers may be eligible for up to $601.80 in non-refundable credits each year.
On March 2, 2017, the Province of B.C. along with the British Columbia Search and Rescue Association, Provincial Emergency Program Air, and Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue will unveil a memorial for search and rescue volunteers in the province who have lost their lives in the line of duty, and to honour all those that serve. The monument will sit adjacent to existing memorials dedicated to fallen Law Enforcement officers, Fire Fighters, and Paramedics.
Comments
Cheap Krusty… Works out to only hundred fifty per year… They deserve better than that
When trying to buy as many votes as you can, you can’t spend all the taxpayers money on only a few organizations or groups. You have to have a plan that spreads our money around to as many people as possible where it will get “them”, (our dear leaders) the biggest bang for “our”, (suckers) buck.
It is amazing how much a government can pretend to care just before an election!
“Currently, the provincial government funds SAR through a variety of means,” Mushumanski said. “The primary one is through gaming grants…they are extremely time consuming and are quite of a burden in terms of applying annually. “And the other piece to it is that there is no guarantee that the application is going to be successful.”
Prince George Search and Rescue search manager Dale Bull said in recent years, the group has applied for the $100,000 maximum allowed under the gaming grant program but has never received the full amount. “Sometimes it varies only by a little, sometimes more,” Bull said. “Last year we were originally denied a large chunk but we were able to appeal that and did receive more.”
ht tp://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/news/local-news/search-and-rescue-seeking-stable-funding-1.2080246
What’s the newest saying?
Dippers gotta hate hate hate…
How does making people aware of the past difficulties the Prince George Search and Rescue has faced, with respect to getting sufficient funding from the BC Liberal government, equate to “hate”?
If the shoe fits, BH. The government has been making these announcements for a long time no matter when they do it, the same hateful dipper comments come out, with you usually leading the hate parade.
I am merely researching and presenting factual information to the readers of this comments section. This news article is about SARs, I posted a comment about past difficulties PG SAR has had getting sufficient funding for the BC Liberal Government, still don’t know how that ca be interpreted as “hate”.
However, the number of times yourself and slinky post repetitively; “Dippers gotta hate hate hate…” will show the rest of us the childish level at which you both engage in debate and discussion.
We are all more than aware of the games you play on here Peeps. You’re not kidding anyone at this point.
BeingHuman, every time that you post a comment about someone or something having difficulties getting sufficient funding from the BC Liberal Government, why don’t you also tell us how easy it was for the NDP to pick cash from their money tree so that they completely satisfied every funding request ever put forward to them?
That sounds fair, right??
Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to address the common misinformed falsehood that the NDP were poor fiscal managers while in government. The fact is the NDP left a surplus topping $1.5 billion to the BC Liberals when they were first elected to government in 2001, this according to the figures in the binder recorded for the fiscal year 2000-01, the last full fiscal year of NDP government!
ht tps://thetyee.ca/Views/2005/04/20/CampbellMisledPublic/
The NDP held the reigns from 1991 to 2001. As this report shows, they ran deficits in their first 9 years with only one surplus budget, in their last year in power, 2000-2001.
1 surplus and 9 deficit in 10 years!
The Liberals have followed up with 7 deficits and 8 surpluses in the following 15 years and are again on track for a surplus!
Let’s be sure not to forget that the NDP also left the Liberals with the BCTF contract, the one that even NDP Premier Ujjal Dosanjh and School Trustee and former NDP leader Carole James both called clearly unaffordable!
ht tp://www.rbc.com/economics/economic-reports/pdf/provincial-forecasts/prov_fiscal.pdf
The BC Liberals claim that thousands of people left BC in the 1990s under the NDP government because there were no jobs is a Liberal fabrication, its fake made up news!
CBC’s Reality Check team started digging deeper into the stats, all the way back to 1991 — the year the NDP took office — they found people were flooding into B.C. from other provinces. The trend continued for most of the NDP years in power. In fact so many Canadians came to B.C. during the NDP years, it more than compensated for a drain that began in 1997. During the NDP decade from 1991 to 2001 B.C. had a net gain of 126,000 people.
According to Statistics Canada, that’s double number of people who moved to B.C. during the last decade of BC Liberal government. The figures show under the Liberals from 2001 to 2012, B.C. had a net gain of only 54,510 from other provinces.
ht tp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/reality-check-who-s-leaving-b-c-1.1369211
Peeps, are you agreeing with my post regarding 9 NDP deficits in 10 years, or are you now just trying to deflect by changing the subject to population increases and declines?
If you want to discuss population numbers, I’m pretty sure that BC’s population will drop by 1 on May 9th when the NDP loses to the Liberals, that being the day your head explodes!
BOOM!!!!!
BC’s credit rating remained stable throughout the 1990s under the NDP. In 1990, BC’s credit rating was AA a rating that remained in place right through to 1999, when it dropped to AA- under circumstances beyond the provincial government’s control; namely the Asian Market collapse.
ht tp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/reality-check-b-c-s-credit-rating-1.1400605
Peeps, do you even bother to read the articles that you link to, or do you just google until you find a headline that you like from the CBC, the HuffPost or the Tyee?
You state that BC’s credit rating remained stable throughout the 1990s under the NDP, while your article states that “rating agency Moody’s downgraded B.C.’s long-term foreign currency credit rating once in the 1990s, in May of 1997.”
Your article also states that “at the same time, Standard and Poor’s dropped B.C. to AA from AA+”.
It then states that “a year later, The Canadian Bond Rating Service followed suit.”
And the it states “In April 1999, the CBRS, Standard and Poor’s and the Dominion Bond rating service all downgraded B.C. to AA- after the NDP delivered its eighth deficit budget.”
Finally your article states “In other words, four separate agencies lowered B.C.’s credit rating on three occasions”.
And yet Peeps, you state “BC’s credit rating remained stable throughout the 1990s under the NDP”!
Thanks for the laugh Peeps, thanks for the laugh!
G’nite!
“MiningWatch Canada has published a new analysis showing that British Columbia (BC) has the worst unsecured environmental liability for mine site clean-up costs in Canada.”
ht tp://www.marketwired.com/press-release/new-analysis-british-columbia-ranks-worst-canada-unsecured-environmental-liability-mine-2129404.htm
“One year to the week after Premier Christy Clark announced health authorities would get an extra $80 million over four years to speed up access to MRI tests, B.C. patients have the longest waiting times in Canada for such imaging tests, according to a Fraser Institute study.”
“B.C. experienced the worst income growth — in fact, incomes declined — of any province in Canada during the 2006-12 period, according to an analysis of Statistics Canada data by an Ottawa think-tank. B.C.’s inflation-adjusted median income fell 2.4 per cent, from $29,917 per tax filer to $29,200, during a period when Canada’s overall employment income grew by 3.5 per cent. Median income is the midway point between the lowest and highest incomes.” Wait… did it say BC experienced the worst income growth (actually a decline) of any province?
BC has the lowest student funding in the Country!
ht tps://ca.news.yahoo.com/student-funding-b-c-worst-162949153.html
“British Columbia is the worst place to be in Canada if you’re a child, and it has been for all but one of the past 13 years. The latest numbers released by Statistics Canada indicate that in 2011, British Columbia once again slipped into last place among the provinces, tied at the bottom with Manitoba.”
www .vancouversun.com/business/2035/Daphne+Bramham+worst+place+Canada/8632354/story.html
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