The Region of Queens is stepping away from a program that provides people with help to file their income taxes opting to go to a volunteer coordinator.

Mayor Darlene Norman says the municipality has offered staff time to assist with scheduling a program providing people assistance to file their income tax for the past 10 years.

For eight weeks each year, four to six volunteers make themselves available at the Liverpool legion on a weekly basis to help people prepare their income tax.

Norman says a large amount of recreation staff time went into the program answering 2,400 calls in 2021 booking close to 800 appointments.

Because of that investment in resources, Norman says the region looked to the community for a volunteer to take on the coordinator role.

Norman says it didn’t take long for three people to offer their services.

“This is not something that’s the responsibility of municipal government and people recognize that,” said Norman.

She says the new volunteer coordinator will be able to take bookings outside municipal staff hours making the program more flexible for users.

It also shows not every job needs to be taken on by government as there are many people willing to step forward to help their community

“Because they are an at-home person, they’ve had experience with this program before, they understand the workload they’re taking on and they think this would be a great way to give back to people,” said Norman.

Tax preparation clinics will be held by appointment, every Tuesday afternoon from Feb. 22 to April 26, 2022 at the Royal Canadian Legion in Liverpool.

To book an appointment, call 902-521-4544.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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