The federal budget will finally clear the Senate today, along with a few other bills — including Liberal Pablo Rodriguez’s C-288, Kyoto Implementation Act.
Now it’s mighty rare that a private member’s bill gets royal assent, as Rodriguez’s bill will today, but how about two private member’s bills on the same day?
Conservative MP Brian Fitzpatrick (right), from the Saskatchewan riding of Prince Albert, is the other lucky MP who will watch his bill clear the Senate today.
Fitzpatrick's bill, C-294, is basically designed to provide a tax break to junior hockey teams.
Fitzpatrick wrote up his bill after the Canada Revenue Agency ruled that the room and board provided to junior hockey players living away from home in the communities in which they were playing were receiving a taxable benefit and were therefore subject to pension and income tax deductions. Fitzpatrick said in his speech on this bill that this added $25,000 a year to the operating costs of some Tier II teams in his area that were barely struggling to survive.
His bill would mean that the room and and board provided to billeted hockey players and other athletes would not be taxed.
“The amendment to the Income Tax Act would have the effect of providing a small exemption to amateur athletic teams of $300 per month per player for the duration of the season. That would be exempt from the reaches of the income tax department. It would extend to all amateur sports teams in which the membership would be 21 years or under. It also would be limited to teams that were non-profit, community-based organizations trying to operate a junior team, or a midget triple A team, or a skate team, or gymnastics team or whatever it may be,” Fitzpatrick said in the House on June 1.