Bill 206 - Alberta Personal Income Tax (Physical Activity Credit) Amendment Act, 2008
November 6, 2008 - Second Reading
Ms Blakeman: Thanks very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to speak briefly to this bill because we’ve seen it come around on the hit parade before. This was an idea that I think was brought forward by the same member at one point but also by the then minister of health, the current minister of finance. I have the same observations now that I had then.
I think that part of what we’re trying to achieve here is a way of enticing people into a physical activity that they wouldn’t otherwise attempt. My point for that is always that people are more likely to engage in something that’s fun, that’s a game. You’re more likely to get people that will go outside with a group of friends for touch football or to have a pickup game of ice hockey or even just a walk that may not have been undertaken except it has a romantic tinge to it. People do those extra physical activities that they don’t normally do usually for fun. We should do them because we know it’s good for us, but not many people actually do that.
My point around this concept of giving a tax credit for money that has been expended to either a not for profit or a profit organization is that I think we would be more successful if we tried two things. One is allowing adult recreational groups to be eligible to get a licence for casinos and bingos, which allows them to raise money to offset the cost of providing the particular activity, and that makes it less expensive. Where you’ve got sort of – I’m making up names here – the Scotsman rugby club and that sort of thing, if their fees are less and it’s easier for people to access it, I believe that this would help us achieve the same end. Currently through a number of changes recreation groups were all excluded from getting access to gaming funds.
Then there was an argument brought that this is a good thing for seniors, and seniors’ recreational groups were exempted. Then there was an argument brought that this was good for children, and that was agreed to, too. Disabled adults are also excluded. So all we’re left with now is adult recreational groups, that are still excluded from raising additional funds through casinos and bingos. I would argue that that doesn’t cost us anything through the government coffers, and they would be able to access some funds that would help them defray the cost to regular folks that were interested.
The second part of this. I wonder what the member anticipates would be the forgone revenue because that’s the situation you end up with. When you offer a tax credit, you in fact are not collecting money on income tax. You’re not collecting that tax. Sometimes you want to do that to encourage a certain type of behaviour or discourage a certain type of behaviour, but you need to know as you go into it, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the program as you go along, how much you expect to spend – I’m putting quotation marks around that – in order to achieve your goal. If your idea here is that you’re going to offer this tax credit, how much pickup do you expect to get? How much forgone revenue will you not get in order to implement this program? My question to you would be: can you convince me that that same amount of money distributed amongst the not for profit recreational and fitness organizations wouldn’t achieve exactly the same ends?
Part of my hesitation in this is having for-profit businesses access taxpayer dollars. I always have a problem with that. I think they’re out there to make a profit. So be it. Make a profit. But somehow tapping into a government subsidization for a private business never strikes me as a good way to go. Not for profits are set up to do a different thing. They’re set up to deliver a particular service, and any surplus that they have at the end of the year is reinvested back into their programming. It’s not split up amongst shareholders and taken home or taken out of the country or whatever else.
Those are my two responses to this. I think we all agree that what we’re trying to achieve is a healthier population, a more engaged population, a more physically fit population, and all of the good habits that come with that, but I still do not believe that this is the way to achieve that. I continue to propose that we look at that change in regulations to allow the adult recreational groups to have access to bingos and casinos, thereby bringing their costs down – it’s more likely that people would then take advantage of their programs and services – and also whether we can get an exact comparison between the achievement of the same goals through either forgone revenue or through distributing that same amount of money amongst the not-for-profits that offer the service and therefore making the whole thing more accessible.
Thank you for the opportunity to raise those points, Mr. Speaker.
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