My name is Peter Robinson. I have been the CEO of the David Suzuki Foundation for the past four years. DSF is a charitable environmental organization whose purpose is to undertake scientific research and communications.
I'd like to preface my comments today by noting that at the moment there is almost as much discussion about charitable organizations occurring at two other federal panels as there is here, and that would be at the House Standing Committee on Natural Resources and the joint review panel on the proposal to build the Northern Gateway pipeline.
I say this because I believe it shows that there is a role the government can play to do a better job of educating Canadians about what are the eligible activities that charities can engage in and to more clearly recognize that charities play an integral role in democratic discussion in this country through the provision of accurate and timely information.
Our written brief fully supports the encouragement of charitable giving in this country by increasing the federal charitable tax credit and extending capital gains exemptions to private company shares and real estate, so I'm going to focus instead on some comments that I've already read in the transcripts on transparency in reporting international funding and on the issue of advocacy.
I'll begin with the issue of transparency in reporting, because I believe the public should be able to know more about the organizations they are intending to support, and this would include more information on gifts from foundations, both domestic and foreign. Much of this information is already posted on CRA filings, which points out, perhaps, that the problem is not with the information but perhaps with how it is accessed and interpreted. Frankly, there should be even greater concerns about the lack of transparency regarding private sector funding of corporate lobbying, which is completely invisible to the Canadian public now.
Switching to the topic of international funding, there has been considerable discussion lately about U.S. foundations funding Canadian charities. Much of it has been negative. Some of these recent discussions have been about Canadian environmental organizations. But the bulk of giving from U.S. foundations—75%—is for education, health care, and social services, funding that is an important contribution to Canadian democratic society.
DSF itself receives, on average, 93% of our revenue from Canadians, 6% from the U.S., and 1% from other countries. For the last three years, this international funding has been almost exclusively for projects related to scientific research on harvesting seafood and strengthening marine planning systems on the west coast. This work demonstrates how environmental issues really know no boundaries.
So if the committee is concerned about encouraging charitable giving, then enabling contributions from outside of Canada is actually quite critical. Restricting international donations could lead to a reduction in the amounts available to Canadian charities, and this might undo many of the enhancements proposed through tax credits and capital gains exemptions.
That leads to my final point about the role of charities and advocacy. I noted earlier our scientific research on seafood issues. This type of work often leads to actions directed at strengthening government policy to protect the environment.
CRA policies acknowledge that charities “are well placed to study, assess, and comment on...government policies” and that “charities may...advance their...purposes by taking part in political activities”. Such activities must, of course, be non-partisan, and “substantially all”—90% of the resources of an organization—must be devoted to the charitable actions.
When DSF calculates these political activities, which it has to do on an annual basis, we include the number of hours that staff spend on these actions as well as all other direct costs. They have always been less than 10% of our total operating costs.
I'd like to conclude my comments today by asking that the committee keep in mind that governments need information from charitable organizations in order to formulate policies that accurately reflect the diverse needs and opinions of our citizens. I'm very pleased, Mr. Chair, that this committee is seeking ways to strengthen civic engagement through charitable donations.
I look forward to your questions later.