By Kira Wronska Dorward | Nunavut News
Nunavut’s legislators want to reward the territory’s search and rescue volunteers with a heftier tax credit.
Finance Minister Lorne Kusugak paid tribute in the legislative assembly on Nov. 7 to those who spend “hours and days searching in the coldest of climates… to work hard and search for our lost ones that are out hunting in the harshest of climates to provide for their families.”
Kusugak proposed Bill 65, which would expand a territorial income tax credit to the federal one currently claimable by firefighters, so search and rescue volunteers can benefit from it.
“These proposed amendments recognize the significant contributions of both search and rescue volunteers and volunteer firefighters throughout the territory,” explained Kusugak. “Currently, the Government of Canada allows search and rescue volunteers to claim a tax credit if they have completed at least 200 hours of eligible service in a year. Our proposed credit can be claimed in addition to Canada’s credit. In addition to adding eligibility for search and rescue volunteers, this bill seeks to reduce the number of volunteer hours required to claim the tax credit from 200 hours to 50 hours.
“We are making this credit more attainable for those who put themselves at risk to help others in need,” Kusugak continued. “We will ask search and rescue organizations to provide a letter to volunteers each year which they can use as proof when they file their taxes. This is the same process we use for volunteer firefighters. The tax credit is indexed to inflation, and has grown from $500 when we first introduced it to $722 in 2025. The Department of Finance has already consulted with the Canada Revenue Agency regarding the timeline for implementing these changes. If passed, search and rescue volunteers can claim this credit beginning in 2025.”
Baker Lake MLA Craig Simailak then asked for clarification from deputy minister of Finance Daniel Young if the defined nature of volunteering included time outside of business hours.
Young said those who receive compensation for either firefighting or search and rescue would be ineligible under the current draft of the bill, although those who take official leave from work to undertake search and rescue volunteer work are eligible.
“Our interpretation of someone who takes civic leave to do search and rescue is not someone being paid directly for search and rescue. Civically, there is an agreement between an employer and an employee that says you can be away from the office for a specific reason, and this reason is search and rescue, but that doesn’t mean you’re being paid to be a search and rescue professional,” Young explained.
“So to summarize… someone who takes civic leave to be a search and rescue volunteer is still eligible for the credit, but if they are paid as a search and rescue professional at some point in the year, they won’t be eligible for the credit in that year,” he added.
The matter was then put to a vote for a third reading and passed.
Kusugak thanked his colleagues for supporting the bill, which will affect “hundreds and hundreds of people across the territory.”
