Government Supports Sport & Physical Activity

Canada’s Finance Minister Jim Flaherty made it official and released his Economic Action Plan and the sport, physical activity and recreation community in Canada for the most part is pleased and to make it better the cover of the document shows two cyclists.

The release is as follows:

“Sport strengthens our communities and is a powerful means of enhancing the lives of Canadians of all ages, particularly children and youth, by enabling them to become more active and healthy. Sport contributes to our sense of national pride through the pursuit of excellence by our high performance athletes” the document reads.

It goes on the confirm that, starting in 2015-16, high performance sport will receive ongoing support of $23 million for the Sport Support Program; $11 million for winter sports through Own the Podium, $6 million for team sports and $5 million for the Canadian Paralympic Committee. An additional $1 million will be provided to Special Olympics who will also receive $10.8 million over 4 years in new money.

High performance athletes received some good news in the budget.

Economic Action Plan 2014 proposes to allow income contributed to an amateur athlete trust to qualify as earned income for the purpose of determining an athlete’s annual RRSP contribution limit.

This will provide amateur athletes (defined as any athlete who is a member of a Registered Canadian Amateur Athletic Association (RCAAA) and who and is/was eligible to compete in an international event as a member of a national team) with more flexibility to save for retirement on a tax-assisted basis.

This measure will apply to contributions made to amateur athlete trusts after 2013, including any made between January 1, 2014 and today. In addition, individuals will be permitted to make an election to have income that was contributed to an amateur athlete trust in 2011, 2012 and 2013 qualify as earned income for RRSP limit purposes.

The Budget will also provide $1 million over two years to Le Grand défi Pierre Lavoie in order to promote healthy living and physical activity for school children across Canada.

Some may have heard that there will be a review of Not-For-Profit organizations to ensure that they are meeting the rules of their status as non-tax paying entities. This was
announced as part of the Federal Budget however it does not apply to charities or RCAAA’s.

In addition, thanks to the efforts of the Heart & Stroke Foundation and others, charities will be allowed to use modern technology to allow the processing of sales and ticket distribution via electronic means, something that they were previously forced by the Criminal Code to do manually and via the mail.

An amount of $10 million over two (2) years will be provided to the National Trails Coalition to improve and expand snowmobile and recreational trails across Canada.

“Once again our sector should be pleased with the 2014 Federal Budget”, said Bob Elliott, Senior Leader at the Sport Matters Group (SMG). “In particular, the provision to allow athletes to use their trust money as earned income for RRSP purposes will allow them to partially make up for the lack of income over their many years of training and competing for Canada.”

On a macro budget scale the government predicts that the deficit will be reduced this year to $2.9 billion and will move to a surplus of $6.4 billion in 2015-16.

For more detailed information on the Budget click here. http://www.budget.gc.ca