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Gord Johns

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of Parliament
  • NDP
  • Courtenay—Alberni
  • British Columbia
  • Voting Attendance: 66%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $148,159.67

  • Government Page
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the minister for her work on the emergency that we are in. I also want to thank my colleague from South Okanagan—West Kootenay for calling for this important debate today. The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs just wrote an op-ed in The Globe and Mail yesterday and cited how Canada is becoming more and more reliant on over 90,000 volunteer firefighters. It also highlighted in its op-ed that, number one, it wants to make sure that the government sends a clear message to firefighters that they are needed, valued and appreciated. It highlighted that the tax benefit for firefighters who do over 200 hours of volunteer work get about a $450 benefit. They get a $3,000 tax threshold relief. They have been calling for that relief threshold to be raised from $3,000 to $10,000, and the right thing would be to support this. It is identified in my private member's bill, Bill C-310. Will the government support what is really a small token given the inflationary costs and the costs on firefighters? They are being stretched to the max. Some of them are working right now. On top of the normal work they do, they also fight wildfires. Will the government honour this ask?
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  • Oct/20/22 12:35:16 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we know Conservatives are ideologically driven in their opposition to the carbon tax. We brought forward an amendment today to remove the GST on home heating because we know people are struggling. We are trying to find ways to work together. If there is a way we could converge and do something to help people right now, removing the GST on home heating would be an incredible opportunity for us. Would the member's party reconsider our proposition so we could provide relief on something we could agree on, something Conservatives had in their platform in the last election, which is removing the GST on home heating so that people could get relief right now?
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