Camp Wild

Folks can save some money by stumping up for their child’s summer camps before May one, according to the operators of local home camps. After April thirty, home camps will be subject to the harmonized sales tax, which mixes the 7 percent provincial sales tax with the existing 5 percent Fed. products and services tax that elders have paid in past summers.

Elders with children in municipally run day camps and programs get a tax break, according to Scott Hartman, Esquimalt’s director of parks and recreation.

there is not any HST for borough programs targeted at kids fourteen and under, or on costs suffered by municipalities in staging such programs, he says. Folks of kids attending the Victoria YMCA / YWCA’s home Camp Thunderbird have been told of the benefit of early payment, Chairperson Jennie Edgecombe says. She guesstimates the savings at $28 per week.

Darryl MacLeod of Shawnigan Lake’s Camp Pringle claims folks save about $22 a week by paying before the May one cut off point for the United Church camp. “It is a great idea to plan out your summer now, particularly if you’re registering for programs in Ontario or English Columbia where the HST is coming into effect this year,” MacLeod says. After a discussion with Income Canada GST / HST ruling offices, it is MacLeod’s understanding that elders can leave a non-refundable deposit to not pay the provincial sales tax for this summer’s camp. The Y camp charges stay the same this year, though its operating costs will go up with the HST, Edgecombe says. “Part of our mandate is to make camp reasonable as we can,” she says, explaining the charge freeze.