When the transit tax credit was introduced, a lot of people (outside of the relatively smaller transit-proponent crowd) decried it as a sop to a minority of people who use transit (who reside mostly in the biggest cities). It's strange for me to now hear complaints that it benefits only people who can afford a pass, or only people with the "attention to detail" to fill out their tax return properly (if a person lacks that attention to detail, it's not too expensive to pay an accountant to do a personal tax return).
Edit: I forgot that it might be a burden for people to keep their receipts until the end of the year. I have to be honest that it's hard for me to understand that as a "challenge," but I can acknowledge that it takes some amount of effort.
It was obviously of most benefit to transit-commuting middle-income earners. Based on speaking to those types of people, though, I think it probably did have some impact. I know I figure most months whether it's better to buy a pass or tickets based on the number of working days in the month and other transit trips I'm likely to take, and I accounted for the credit when I did. I bet other people did likewise and I think that, once someone buys a pass and incremental trips are "free," it's possible to "turn" that person from an occasional to a regular transit user.
Frankly, we need more of these people taking transit. They're more likely to be able to successfully advocate for better transit than are some other types of users (maybe like the people who don't fill out their tax returns properly).
The current government I guess successfully framed it as a question of continuing this tax credit, or increasing direct funding. It probably wasn't. And that doesn't jibe with the argument that there was limited take-up. I'll be curious to see exactly how much the credit cost, and how many people it did benefit.
Edit: I forgot that it might be a burden for people to keep their receipts until the end of the year. I have to be honest that it's hard for me to understand that as a "challenge," but I can acknowledge that it takes some amount of effort.
It was obviously of most benefit to transit-commuting middle-income earners. Based on speaking to those types of people, though, I think it probably did have some impact. I know I figure most months whether it's better to buy a pass or tickets based on the number of working days in the month and other transit trips I'm likely to take, and I accounted for the credit when I did. I bet other people did likewise and I think that, once someone buys a pass and incremental trips are "free," it's possible to "turn" that person from an occasional to a regular transit user.
Frankly, we need more of these people taking transit. They're more likely to be able to successfully advocate for better transit than are some other types of users (maybe like the people who don't fill out their tax returns properly).
The current government I guess successfully framed it as a question of continuing this tax credit, or increasing direct funding. It probably wasn't. And that doesn't jibe with the argument that there was limited take-up. I'll be curious to see exactly how much the credit cost, and how many people it did benefit.