Child tax credit form. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski.
Northern Saskatchewan’s federal representative is thanking people for making recent disabilities tax sessions a big success.
The NDP-led sessions explained lesser-known benefits that can put money back in people’s pockets. The La Ronge event on Aug. 29 involved hundreds of people either stopping in for sessions in La Ronge or accessing them by phone from all over northern Saskatchewan.
BC MP Peter Julian started hosting disabilities tax credit seminars across Canada years ago ever since the Conservatives stopped Revenue Canada from doing that work, and these recent ones have led to “a higher than usual volume of follow up requests,” according to MP Georgina Jolibois, who hosted the sessions.
“That tells me there’s a really big need in northern Saskatchewan,” Jolibois said.
Before the event she “kind of had an idea that our residents in northern Saskatchewan had issues around disabilities. That magnitude of it, I didn’t know.”
She added that the talks taught her a lot about the needs of disabled northerners.
“Our residents who live with disabilities are playing catch up and they need a lot of assistance and they need a lot of support, and so in my opinion every agency with services that (can) be made available should be available.”
She said residents pointed out there’s a big difference between what the NDP is doing to inform disabled people about federal tax credits, and what the province is doing in reducing their benefits.
The events were so popular that Jolibois says they’re hoping to have another session before year’s end.
She says anyone who needs help with the disabilities tax credit to contact her office at 1-844-294-6711 or 1-866-400-2334.