Tax break for travelling Canadians

A Québec MP is hoping to boost domestic travel by introducing tax breaks for vacationing Canadians.

Saint Léonard-Saint Michel’s Massimo Pacetti has introduced a private member’s bill called the “Discover Your Canada Act.”

In it, he’s calling for credits to be applied at income tax time for Canadians who travel for non business-related purposes and cross more than three provincial borders.

If approved, it would provide a 100 per cent deduction on bus fare, 75 per cent on train tickets and 50 per cent on domestic flights.

“I would like to make it easier for Canadians to go where I’ve gone, see what I’ve seen, and meet who I’ve met,” Pacetti tells 660News.  “I’m sure that if more Canadians have a chance to discover their country, Canada would be more united than ever.”

He says he came up with the idea during budget consultations a couple of years ago while walking the streets of Vancouver.

A Canadian Press/Harris Decima survey found seven in 10 Canadians expressed support for the idea.

Regionally, almost eight in 10 liked it in Atlantic Canada while British Columbians and Albertans were 75 per cent in favour.

And four in every 10 people across the country say they would be more likely to travel within Canada if the tax break were in place.

Harris Decima Vice President of Travel and Leisure, Patricia Thacker, says the bill would pay dividends for the industry.

“The more we can keep those dollars in Canada, obviously that rolls out into the industry; it helps create jobs, it keeps money in the country that might have been going elsewhere,” she says.

Thacker says the private member’s bill gets Canadians talking more and more about the opportunities here at home.

“There are fewer and fewer people making multiple trips, choosing longer destinations, doing things like that,” she explains. “So every dollar that leaves right now, we’re not necessarily getting that back in return.”

But not everyone is on board with the idea.

The President and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada would like to see federal dollars spent elsewhere.

“I think our first choice would be the erosion in marketing investment that we’ve faced over the last few years and our capacity to market internationally,” he tells 660News.

Derek Coke-Kerr believes the private member’s bill would be too complicated to implement.

“What would be much more likely to boost domestic travel, is if the federal government would replace the $12-million it just cut from the Canadian Tourism Commission’s budget,” he says.

Pacetti is still crunching the numbers and is looking to make the “Discover Your Canada Act” revenue neutral.

He hopes it can be implemented by 2017, in time for Canada’s 150th birthday.