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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 40

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 3, 2022 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 40 - Mar/3/22
Mr. Larry Maguire
  • Mar/3/22 1:32:25 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will go back to the answer I gave to my first question. It is about the lack of vision and the short-sightedness of the government in power today. It does not have the vision to foresee that some of these things might be needed down the road. However, the best time to plant a tree is today, and the best way to deal with the Putin regime taking over and trying to destroy the country of Ukraine and its people is to sanction it as harshly as we can today. Let us have the vision to put in place the types of donations, support programs, military support—
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Context: House Hansard - 40 - Mar/3/22
Ms. Rachel Bendayan (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance, Lib.)
Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to exchange with my hon. colleague from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, with whom I also sit on the foreign affairs committee. As members can imagine, over the last number of weeks we have been very busy addressing the developing situation in Ukraine and now, of course, the illegal invasion. I believe my colleague wished earlier to refer to the hon. member of Northumberland—Peterborough South, who introduced the companion bill. I would like to begin my response to my colleague by being very transparent, both to him and to every member of the House, in saying that our government is currently analyzing carefully Bill S-216 and will communicate its position as the bill makes its way through the legislative process in the House of Commons. Indeed, there is much at stake, and we must consider very carefully how the framework for charities that work in partnership with other charities in Canada and internationally could be improved. As my hon. colleague knows full well, Canada's tax incentives for charitable donations are among the most generous in the world, and Canadians are also very generous. They claimed $11 billion in donations made to registered charities and eligible recipients in 2020. That translated into $3.1 billion in federal tax relief for the donators through the charitable donation tax credit. In the meantime, corporations made $3 billion in donations and received roughly $710 million in federal tax assistance through the tax deduction for charitable donations. The generosity of this tax assistance and other tax benefits given to charitable organizations means that organizations that decide to register as a charitable organization follow a host of specific rules set out in the Income Tax Act. These rules are designed to ensure that the donated money is indeed used for charitable purposes. Through this function, these rules protect the public trust in the entire charitable sector. The Income Tax Act, one of the main rules governing charities, allows registered charities to use their resources in two ways. They can use their resources on their own charitable activities or they can make gifts to qualified donees. This rule was designed to guarantee a high level of accountability for tax-deductible donations. Under the current provisions of the law, charities are able to partner with intermediaries to carry out their charitable activities, but yes, they must maintain sufficient control and direction over the charity's resources. That is how the law is currently drafted. The intention here is that federal tax rules should support the work of charities while still ensuring accountability for the use of donations so that Canadians know and can be certain that the tax-assisted donations they are making to charitable causes are actually going to those causes.
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