Nova Scotians in military will not pay new non-resident tax, vows finance minister

Nova Scotia's opposition parties tried but failed to convince the PC government to exemptproperty owners who serve in the military from the province's new non-resident property tax.

MLAs who sit on the government side of the House defeated an amendment to the Financial Measures Act by a vote of 29-23 on Thursday night.

Finance Minister Allan MacMastersaid the change to the law wasn't needed because military personnel would not be called on to pay the tax, which his Finance Department estimates will generate $65.5 millionnext year.

MacMaster said Nova Scotians deployed overseas don't pay income taxes so they would be unaffected by the new measure, which wouldbe collected when a person files their income taxes.

He said those deployed in another province still pay Nova Scotia taxes, so they would also be exempt.

If a member of the military had aparticular situation that made them subject to the new tax, MacMaster said he would use his power in the law to issue a ministerial exemption.

"The minister has discretion and if there are unique situations brought to us by the Armed Forces personnel, we would also have the regulations to fix [it]to ensure that they're not impacted by this," said MacMaster.

"It's not our intention to have them impacted at all."