Media Release: Take Action on Radon!

Media Release

Ask Finance Minister Joe Oliver, Health Minister Rona Ambrose, and Your MP to Support a Tax Credit for Radon Remediation

It’s Radon Action Month

• Get yourself a radon test kit!
• Get the good one – a minimum three months test during the winter months.
• Hopefully your test will rule out a problem in your home. You’re done! It’s a good idea to save your test results to show whoever buys your house in the future.
• If your test shows you have a high radon level, visit reduceradon.ca to find out what you or your landlord can do.
• Avoid unnecessary risk of lung cancer.
• Ask your MP to support a tax credit for radon remediation in the 2015 federal budget.

Background:

Giving credit where it’s due, the federal government has taken important steps to help reduce radon-induced lung cancer. Since 2007 under the National Radon Program, the federal government has:

• Written a Radon Guideline to recommend measures for radon prevention in new buildings, guidance on when to remediate, and set a radon “reference level” for radon at 200 Bequerels per cubic metre;
• Tested for radon in 1000s of federal buildings and homes in a cross-Canada survey;
• Updated radon protection measures in the National Building Code;
• Researched radon testing and mitigation techniques;
• Developed a Canadian certification program for radon mitigation professionals; and
• Repeatedly advised Canadians that all homes should be tested for radon.

We think there is a logical next step – a tax credit for radon remediation.

Through our work with the Green Budget Coalition, we have recommended that the federal government amend the Income Tax Act to provide a tax credit to homeowners incurring costs for radon remediation and, consequently, to increase public awareness about a serious issue.

Please help this effort by writing to Finance Minister Joe Oliver (reach him here), Health Minister Rona Ambrose (reach her here), and to your MP (find your MP). Ask them to support the Green Budget Coalition call for a radon remediation tax credit.

Thanks!

Green Budget Coalition Recommendations for Budget 2015 (page 50 for the radon recommendation).

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For more information:
Kathleen Cooper, Senior Researcher, CELA 705-341-2488 kcooper@cela.ca