(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Provincial budget extends offering to volunteer firefighters

Mar 20, 2019 | 5:42 PM

The 2019 provincial budget includes a tax credit for volunteer firefighters and first responders.

Beginning with the 2020 taxation year, any individual with 200 hours of volunteer service in a year can claim a $3,000 tax credit. Kinistino Fire Chief Brennen Smith told paNOW he heard something was coming.

“It’s very appealing to us and I fully agree with it,” he said.

The provincial tax credit comes on top of a similar one offered by the federal government. Smith said the tax credit doesn’t always help.

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“I know it’s happened to me a couple times where I have claimed it and it’s put me in a higher tax bracket which in the end hurts me,” he said.

Those words are echoed by Gary Schraeder, Fire Chief for the Rural Municipality of Buckland. He said the tax credit is great for the crew members who are not making a lot of money.

“But for other guys it doesn’t really help them because it puts them in a different tax bracket and it’s sometimes better not to claim it,” he said.

Doug Lapchuk, President of the Saskatchewan Volunteer Firefighters Association, was in Regina for Wednesday’s budget announcement.

He told paNOW his group had been asking for some form of provincial tax credit for years. He added the tax credit represents an acknowledgement of the work the volunteer firefighters do across the province.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell