Posted on June 12
Why are residents of Anticosti Island not entitled to the tax credit for isolated villages? This is a 30-year-old case that does not come to fruition…
Michael Charlebois
You may not know it, but people who live a minimum of six consecutive months in a remote region are entitled to a tax credit which financially compensates for the remoteness and the cost of living, which is often higher in the villages. northern or isolated areas covered by this measure.
In his letter, Michel Charlebois points out that residents of Anticosti Island are on the intermediate list of remote villages, which entitles them to a tax credit of $5.50 per day rather than $11 per day for very remote villages.
However, villages less remote than Anticosti Island – Natashquan, for example – are entitled to a tax credit of $11 per day. “Are they more isolated than us? asks our reader.
Mr. Charlebois is right to be impatient. Indeed, this question has long been raised with the competent authorities.
“If the Minister of Finance of Canada has to accompany me on the ground to see the isolation of Anticosti Island, I will be more than happy to go there with her”, moreover declared the Bloc Québécois MP for Manicouagan, Marilène Gill.
Her office, to which we forwarded Mr. Charlebois’ question, recalls that the member was informed of the problem in 2017 by citizens of the island.
With his team, Mr.me Gill first approached the Canada Revenue Agency.
In 2019, after a series of unsuccessful exchanges, the MP’s team knocked on the door of the Minister of National Revenue’s office to put pressure on the department. For his part, the colleague of Mr.me Gill and Bloc Québécois Finance Critic Gabriel Ste-Marie addressed the issue to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. Again, no results.
Then, last spring, the office of the Minister of National Revenue finally informed the hon. member for Manicouagan that after analysis, the file was the responsibility of… the Department of Finance of Canada.
The team of MP Marilène Gill therefore went to knock on the office of the Minister of Finance. Answer: the analysis will be carried out. And since then, it’s been radio silence.
We too asked the question of the Ministry of Finance, who replied that “the zone system currently used to calculate the tax advantages granted to residents of northern regions had been established after a thorough examination with the objective of helping northern and isolated regions in Canada to attract skilled labor to their communities, taking into account the additional costs that residents of these regions face”.
However, it is not specified why residents of Anticosti Island are not entitled to the maximum tax credit.
“It’s an issue that should be easy for the department to resolve,” said Ms.me Gill in an email from his office. […] It wastes money for our communities and time for those who have been fighting for years to ensure that our people are treated fairly and equitably. »
We agree with her.