Agreed.
I pay MSP premiums for my staff and that is a taxable benefit: included as taxable income on their T4 for income taxes and CPP purposes.
Also pay into a health service trust for them and is that taxable?
Nope, non-taxable benefit.
I get a tax deduction while they/I partipate in the plan and pay no income tax on it.
In my healthy years I use my health trust to pay for registered massage therapy for "stress relief."
Sometimes the wife and I go to Scandinave spa in Whistler and buy the RMT treatment and then use the pools/sauna/steam room for a few hours. All for "free" (well, in my case, as a tax deduction since I am paying into the plan).
So, yes, this is nauseating and is a violation of the horizontal equity principle:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/horizontalequity.asp