Finance committee  Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Imagine Canada is a national umbrella organization that speaks in concert with more than 1,300 charities and non-profits working in every community across the country and around the globe. Our members provide social and community services through or

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. McCallum. Certainly Don Johnson has been a huge champion for this sector. Of course, on the giving end, the capital gains work that he's done over the years has been extremely important. I also believe that what he's putting forward is important. I guess the po

Finance committee  Sorry, in terms of...?

Finance committee  It's hard to compare those numbers. I think the difference on the ground would be that a lot of these dollars through the stretch tax credit would go to a lot of the smaller charities or a lot of the more rural charities that haven't necessarily benefited from the asset side of t

Finance committee  For our last two recommendations, there are no costs, which makes them easier. In terms of the stretch tax credit, it is experimental, so it's hard to give you a precise number. We need numbers from Finance. But even if we were to be very ambitious about it and were looking, fo

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, members of the committee. Imagine Canada is a national umbrella organization for Canadian charities and non-profits. These organizations work in every community across Canada, and in countries around the world, to help address some of today's most intractable social, e

Finance committee  We think it is an innovative measure. It's never been tried before and it's never been tried elsewhere. It is very much about trying to change behaviour. We feel, for example, that if you were simply to increase the tax credit, it would cost government more money and you wouldn't

Finance committee  Absolutely not. We strongly recognize the importance of the state, which is to ensure the provision of services; there is no doubt in that regard. In reality, however, in many cases, charities do pick up the slack.

Finance committee  No, I don't think that this is at all—

Finance committee  Absolutely. The stretch tax credit seeks to strengthen the quality of work being done by small and large organizations, and their ability to do their job wherever they may be in Canada, be it in urban or rural regions.

Finance committee  Over the past few years, we have done a lot to help philanthropists in Canada give more and this has had significant consequences.

Finance committee  The message we are trying to send with the stretch tax credit is that incentives must also be created to ensure that the average Canadian can become a philanthropist and help small and large organizations.

Finance committee  Thanks, Mr. Brison. The results of the policies around capital gains have been very beneficial, and Imagine Canada supported those policies. We're coming forward with this stretch now in order to look at it from the other side and see how we can build and strengthen the base o

Finance committee  The tax credit system that we have now is a very generous one. One of the issues is that awareness of that is not huge. The reason we are proposing this stretch tax credit is the idea of giving people an incentive to always give a bit more. That's why we're not recommending that

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am happy to appear today before the Standing Committee on Finance. Imagine Canada is the voice for the charitable sector in Canada. Today I'd like to talk mostly about the stretch tax credit, which is the focus of our brief. I want to talk about it bec