Local politician launches petition to give RCMP auxiliary officers a tax break

January 08, 2016 - 2:06 PM By Charlotte Helston INFO-TEL.CA
VERNON - A Vernon city councillor is petitioning the federal government to get a tax credit for auxiliary police officers. The petition is posted on the Parliament of Canada website, and calls upon the government to extend the same credit to auxiliary constables — unarmed, unpaid, uniformed RCMP volunteers — as it does to certain other volunteers.
The petition, launched by Vernon councillor Bob Spiers, states "the previous government instituted a tax credit for Volunteer Firemen in 2011 and a similar tax treatment for Volunteer Search and Rescue in 2014."

To have a petition posted on the House of Commons e-petition website and eventually presented in the House of Commons, it must be sponsored by a Member of Parliament. North Okanagan-Shuswap MP Mel Arnold is the sponsor for the petition.

The petition will be open for signatures from Jan. 8 to May 7.