Opinion: BC parents pay for sports, music and tutoring with no tax credit. Six provinces and territories give one

This article is the opinion of the voche.me editors. The facts it relies on are listed with their sources at the end.

A parent in British Columbia who pays for a child's hockey season, piano lessons or math tutor gets nothing back from the province at tax time. A parent in Manitoba, Prince Edward Island or Yukon who pays the same fees can claim them.

BC had a credit for these fees and ended it. We think the new government should explain why BC families should go without one, or bring it back in its first budget.

BC had a credit and ended it

Ottawa cut the federal children's fitness and arts credits in half for 2016 and ended both for 2017, according to the Canada Revenue Agency's page on that year's federal budget.

BC followed. Its September 2017 budget update ended the children's fitness, children's fitness equipment and children's arts tax credits from the 2018 tax year. The document says this was "consistent with the elimination of federal fitness and arts credits."

The same document put the cost of BC's children's fitness and arts credits at $9 million for 2016/17.

What parents get in other places for 2025

We read the Canada Revenue Agency's 2025 tax guide for each province and territory it collects income tax for. Six of the 12 have a credit or benefit for children's activities:

• Manitoba: up to $500 per child for physical activity fees, and up to $500 per child under 16 for arts, cultural, recreational or developmental programs.
• Prince Edward Island: up to $1,000 per child under 18 for artistic, cultural, recreational, developmental or physical activity programs.
• Yukon: up to $1,000 per child for physical activity fees, and up to $500 per child for arts programs.
• Nova Scotia: up to $500 per child under 19 for sports and arts programs.
• Newfoundland and Labrador: up to $2,000 per family for physical activity fees.
• Saskatchewan: up to $300 per child, for families with an income of $120,000 or less.

In Manitoba, PEI and Yukon, a program counts if it "provides enrichment or tutoring in academic subjects." A parent there who pays a tutor for eight weeks or more can claim it.

The 2025 guides for BC, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut list no such credit. Quebec runs its own income tax and is not in these guides.

What the new government has promised families

Premier-designate Lorne Doerkson's platform has a section called "Help families when it counts." On page 7 it promises to increase the BC Family Benefit and the Affordable Child Care Benefit, and to match the federal tax credit for families who build a suite for a senior relative.

It says nothing about the fees parents pay for sports, arts or tutoring.

The case against a credit

The federal government had reasons for ending its credits, and BC should weigh them.

CBC News reported in March 2017 on a federal report that found the old credits had shortcomings. Families with incomes under $40,000 claimed them less often than families with higher incomes. The money came back at tax time, possibly more than a year after the fee was paid. In one 2010 survey, 4 per cent of parents said the fitness credit increased their children's participation. CBC's article concluded that paying for free or low-cost programs might help more children.

We accept those points. They are arguments about how to design a credit. A credit that only lowers income tax gives nothing to a family that owes none. A credit that pays out as a refund, as the federal fitness credit did in its last years, reaches those families too.

What we ask

Before its first budget, the new government should answer three questions:

1. Will BC bring back a credit for children's sports, arts and tutoring fees?
2. If it will, will the credit pay out to families who owe no income tax?
3. If it will not, what does BC offer a parent paying these fees that Manitoba and PEI do not?

BC's own budget put the cost of its old credits at $9 million for 2016/17. Six provinces and territories have kept a version of them.

You can follow every promise the new government made on the government promise tracker.