Climate Action Incentive (S14)

Updated: 2020-07-22

Climate Action Incentive (CAI) payments are designed to return the proceeds from the fuel charge to residents of the provinces who use the federal system of carbon pollution pricing: Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Residents of those provinces may apply for this refundable tax credit on Schedule 14 when preparing their T1 personal tax return. TaxCycle T1 supports the calculation of these payments and their optimization between family members.

Payment amounts

A list of the CAI payment amounts appears in this report from the Department of Finance.

A supplementary amount will be provided for eligible individuals and families residing outside a census metropolitan area, as defined by Statistics Canada (see below). This supplement increases the baseline amount by 10%.

Census metropolitan areas (CMA)

For the purpose of the CAI supplement for residents of small and rural communities, individuals must have resided outside of a census metropolitan area (CMA) on December 31, 2019, as defined by Statistics Canada in the last census published before 2019. 

To confirm whether a person lives in a CMA, visit the CRA's page Find out if you qualify for the supplement for residents of small and rural communities or call 1-800-959-8281. 

Individuals cannot claim the supplement for residents of small and rural communities if their principal place of residence was located in one of the following CMAs:

• New Brunswick: Moncton or Saint John
• Ontario: Barrie, Belleville, Brantford, Greater Sudbury, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, Kitchener-Cambridge- Waterloo, London, Oshawa, the Ontario part of Ottawa-Gatineau, Peterborough, St. Catharines-Niagara, Thunder Bay, Toronto, or Windsor
• Manitoba: Winnipeg
• Saskatchewan: Saskatoon or Regina
• Alberta: Calgary, Edmonton or Lethbridge

This list of CMAs appears at the end of the instructions, at the bottom of page 2 of Schedule 14. However, this can change. Please refer to the CRA web page to confirm whether a community is within a CMA.

CAI fields on the Info worksheet

If the taxpayer is a resident of one the applicable provinces (Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Saskatchewan), additional questions appear in the Credits section on the Info worksheet. These questions must be completed to determine the eligibility of the taxpayer and spouse to claim the CAI credit.

Preparing Schedule 14 in TaxCycle

TaxCycle will automatically display and begin to prepare the Schedule 14 for residents of the applicable provinces (Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Saskatchewan).

Please read the instructions on page 2 of Schedule 14 to review eligibility requirements for this credit.

Review messages on Schedule 14 appear to remind you to indicate:

1. Whether the individual resided inside or outside a census metropolitan area (see below) for purposes of calculating the supplement for residents of small and rural communities; and
2. Whether any dependants meet the conditions as qualified dependants.

For coupled returns, complete Schedule 14 for one of the taxpayers. The calculated credit is then transferred to line 449 of the T1 jacket. The Optimizations worksheet also includes fields to adjust who claims the CAI (see below).

CAI on the Optimizations worksheet

The Climate Action Incentive is included in the optimized calculations for coupled and family returns. On the Optimizations worksheet, the section on Detailed family optimizations of refundable credits includes fields to allow you to adjust who claims the credit.