Children's Fitness Tax Credit: improvements required

There has been a lot of talk about the Children's Fitness Tax Credit the last couple of weeks. All this talk has been spurred on by a recently published study which looked at this credit.

Dr. John Spence, from the University of Alberta, conducted this study which examined the awareness, uptake, and perceived effectiveness of this tax credit among Canadian Parents. He also looked to see how household income affected these results.

Among parents surveyed:

• 54.4 % said their child was enrolled in an organized physical activity program;
• 55.5% were aware of the Childrens' Fitness Tax Credit Program;
• 26.1% made claims for the tax credit in 2007,
• 33.1 % planned to do so in 2008.
• 15.6 % reported that it had increased their children’s participation in physical activity programs

The survey found that parents in the low income category were significantly less aware of the tax credit program, and less likely to claim the Children's Fitness Tax Credit when compared to other income groups.

Originally this tax credit was created by the federal government to help address the financial barrier to physical activity participation. However, this study confirms our intuitive assumption with a program like this. A tax credit is not really going to financially help the segment of the population who really needs it. In fact it will on serve to aid those that already have advantages.

A tax program, such as the Children's Fitness Tax credit will only benefit those who can actually afford to register their children in the program. For example, Dr. Spence reported that 63% of low income parents spent between 0-$100.00 on their child's registration. You compare this to the highest income group- and 76% spent more than $100.00 and 31% over $500. Disparity much??

An interesting side note: When this tax credit was first conceptualized, panels of experts were formed to provide feedback to the federal government. Many of those experts expressed concerns that the tax credit would not reach the segment of the population in most need. Basically they predicted what Dr. Spence's found. Now that there is actual research backing up these concerns, I hope the government listens to experts out there.

Dr. Spence- presented a couple recommendations in his paper... which I think the federal government should carefully consider:

1. Increasing awareness of the tax credit to low income families: as awareness of this tax credit was lowest in the low-income families targeted marketing to this segment of the population is needed.
2. Support Subsidy programs: The government should also support organization (municipalities and not-for profits) which offer subsides to low income families. A good example would be KidsSport Canada

As for us... community leaders... we need to speak up! Armed with this knowledge- and research backing us up- we need to start advocating to our Member of Parliament, that this tax credit needs to be improved and additional options for support should be explored.

After you have done that- get outside and go for a pleasant walk!

Dr. John Spence's paper: Spence JC, Holt NL, Dutove JK, & Carson V (2010). Uptake and effectiveness of the Children’s Fitness Tax Credit in Canada: the rich get richer. BMC public health, 10 PMID: 20565963