Addressing Income Disparities in Physical Activity Participation among Canadian Children: The Role of Tax Incentives and Subsidies

The majority of Canadian children are physically inactive. Furthermore, children living in low-income families are less likely to be physically active and to engage in organized sport than children from wealthier families. Thus, goverments, both Federal and some Provinical, have implememnted tax incentives and other subsidies to help reduce the costs associated with registering in organized physical activity programs. Unfortunately little is known about the effectiveness of such initiatives. The proposed projects will examine if tax incentives are effective for promoting PA among children and whether such incentives may actually increase the income gradient for PA.