Toby Boulet says he is encouraged by a new checkbox of T1 tax forms in Alberta that will easily allow people to get more information about organ and tissue donation. (Photo: Pattison Media)

By David Opinko

Organ donation checkbox on AB tax forms a great step, says advocate

May 6, 2025 | 9:11 AM

A Lethbridge man says the Alberta Government is taking a positive step forward by making it easier for more people to register as organ and tissue donors.

On May 5, the province said that this year’s T1 tax forms will include a checkbox that allows Albertans to ask for more information about how to sign up to become a donor and the process.

Toby Boulet is the father of Logan Boulet, one of the 16 young hockey players who died in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018.

Fourteen of the victims died on scene, while Logan and athletic therapist Dayna Brons were rushed to a hospital in Saskatoon.

Toby says Brons was the only person on the bus who had already registered as an organ and tissue donor, while Logan had previously expressed a desire to do the same.

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He told LNN that this situation is indicative of the wider issue about people signing up.

“Out of 16 that passed, only two were eligible to be organ donors and one was. That’s your percentage there. There’s not many in Canada who get to that point where everything’s going to work,” says Boulet.

Canadian Blood Services estimates that, in 2022, only about one to two per cent of deaths in the country resulted in an organ transplant.

Through his advocacy work in the years since his son’s passing, Boulet says he has learned that a person has to meet many requirements to be eligible to donate.

“The person has to pass in a certain way, whether you’re brain-dead or not, and whether you’re able to have a body that’s still alive brought to a transplant hospital or a hospital that has emergency care that can get you onto STARS or HALO, or whatever it might be, gets you to Calgary or wherever you’re going to go for organ recovery. We know those things happen, but it makes it very very tough.”

By allowing people to get more information about organ and tissue donation through their tax forms, Boulet hopes that it will lead to similar increases in the numbers of registered donors that B.C. and Ontario saw when they started doing the same thing.

“It’s a matter of the more times it’s placed in front of a person and the easier you make it, the better chance it has to happen,” says Boulet.

As of April 28, 2025, the Alberta Government says nearly 900,000 people in the province had registered their consent to become an organ and tissue donor, or just over 18 per cent of the total population.

Albertans can learn more about organ and tissue donation and register their wishes on the Alberta Organ and Tissue Donation Registry.

READ MORE: Alberta T1 tax form to include organ and tissue donation info request

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