The Chair presented a draft report which read as follows:
Whereas the Committee is generally supportive of the intent of Bill C-273 and feels that those who provide volunteer emergency services should be recognized by the federal government through the tax system, there are unresolved questions about:
- the definition of the term “volunteer emergency service,” and whether it would include the volunteer emergency services provided by auxiliary police officers, auxiliary Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers, and those volunteers who provide emergency search and rescue, paramedic and coast guard services, among others;
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the definition of the term “emergency,” and whether it would be restricted to situations where the volunteers are putting their lives at risk;
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the activities that would qualify in determining the number of hours of volunteer service for the purposes of the proposed measure;
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the existence of accurate, reliable record-keeping and reporting capacity to determine the number of hours of volunteer emergency services;
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the extent to which the number of hours of volunteer service in the proposal has been set at the appropriate level;
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whether the authority responsible for the keeping of records would be a municipal authority or an entity approved by the municipality;
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whether the term “volunteer” would be synonymous with “unpaid”;
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the relative merits of a tax deduction versus a refundable or non-refundable tax credit;
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the extent to which provincial/territorial tax revenues would be affected by the proposed measure;
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the extent to which this type of measure should be designed only following consultation with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities;
Therefore, in light of the above noted details of the proposal in Bill C-273, be it resolved that this Committee, pursuant to Standing Order 97.1, recommends that the House of Commons do not proceed further with Bill C-273, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (deduction for volunteer emergency services).