ORFORD, Que. – The Tories and Liberals accused each other Wednesday of copying an idea to offer federal incentives for volunteer firefighters.
Visiting the station of volunteer firefighters in Quebec’s Eastern Townships region, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff noted that last year, his party had proposed the incentives, through the form of a refundable tax credit.
The incentive would be available to thousands of firefighters across the country that work at least 200 hours on a volunteer basis, leaving them with up to $450 in their pockets at the end of the year.
“The Conservative party then played catch up with us and said ‘Oh that’s a good idea, let’s steal that,’” said Ignatieff, who took questions from a crowd at the station. “So they stole that from the platform.”
However, the Conservatives accused the Liberals of copying their idea, first proposed in a private member’s bill in 2003.
At the time, the Liberal government rejected the idea.
The Liberals noted that the new Conservative plan does not match their own proposal since the Tories pledged to deliver a non-refundable credit.
Conservative leader Stephen Harper also promoted this pledge on Tuesday in central Quebec.
Ignatieff, who was campaigning with former MP and Liberal cabinet minister Denis Paradis, running in the riding of Brome-Missisquoi, also praised the Eastern Townships region.
Ignatieff said that when his family had first arrived in Canada they lived in the Townships and found it was a bilingual region where two communities lived together switching languages in between sentences.
He said the Conservatives demonstrated they don’t understand the needs of the region when they announced cuts to border crossing services to the U.S. that made it easy for friends and family to travel between both sides.
He said he is hoping new rural policies introduced by the Liberals, including a plan to introduce high-speed Internet access in remote and rural regions, will help revitalize the communities.
He said he understands the realities of the region, noting that 12 members of his family were buried in the Eastern Townships, including his father.
“And me too one of these days although I’m in no hurry,” he said drawing laughter from the crowd.
Mdesouza@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/mikedesouza
