The federal government plans to double a tax credit provided to volunteer firefighters.
When the government introduces the 2024 Budget on Tuesday, April 16, it will propose to double the Volunteer Firefighters Tax Credit, and the Search and Rescue Volunteers Tax Credit.
The government says this means the tax credit will increase from $3,000 to $6,000 for 2024 and subsequent tax years, saving volunteer firefighters up to $900 per year.
Over the next six years, the government says this represents about $105 million in new support for volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers across the country.
Windsor-Tecumseh Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk says this is just one way for us to say thank-you to the men and women, the volunteer firefighters, who every single day put their lives on the line to make sure our communities are safe.
"Especially as we're coming off last year which was a record year for wildfires across Canada," he says. "We had wildfires that were really out of control, and had burned around 1,700,000 hectares of forest across Canada."
Kusmierczyk says these volunteer firefighters answer hundreds of calls per year.
"In the town of Tecumseh, we have around 42 volunteer firefighters on staff. In neighbouring Lakeshore, they have around 100 volunteer firefighters. We're very fortunate to have these men and women that don the uniform. Again, when the bell calls, they're there, and they answer it every single time to make sure that we're safe," he says.
According to the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, Canada has around 90,000 volunteer firefighters who provide fire and all hazard emergency services to their communities.