Finance Committee on Dec. 6th, 2007

[Teri Kirk]

Yes. First of all, my understanding is that right now our main donors, private foundations and other significant donors, cannot make low-interest, below-market loans to organizations; they're prohibited. They would like to explore things like interest-free loans to organizations.

I know when Philanthropic Foundations Canada appeared here they highlighted for you something the UK has introduced, called corporate social bonds, that allow corporations to lend to causes they're highly committed to at below-market interest rates. So this becomes a win-win. These are the range of instruments.

Some charities take on small issues, some take on very large issues that require significant sources of capital, and they do it to complement government or in areas that governments aren't performing. They'd like to do so increasingly, beyond a grant structure, be able to borrow, get equity financing, and so on.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Thank you.

It might be helpful if you could follow up on that. I would certainly like to receive it, and I don't know whether other members of the committee do, but it would be helpful.

[Teri Kirk]

Yes, I'd be pleased to. Yes, certainly we'd welcome that expression.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

The other question I had for you related to one of the first presentations we heard with respect to pre-budget. It was from a not-for-profit organization that talked a lot about the advantages of potentially raising the threshold for the rebate on contributions.

Currently it averages out at 29%, and one of the points they made was the potential for us to take a look. It's been that way for a long time. What about potentially raising that a little bit? I started to think a little about the fact that all the tax reductions the government has made over the last couple of years have put a little more money in people's pockets, potentially, by offering an added incentive that would be helpful to the organizations you spoke to in terms of the total amount of money that 22 million Canadians have contributed.

I wanted to get your thoughts on whether you've looked at that and what a potential increase might look like.

[Teri Kirk]

First of all, we very much appreciate your interest in that area. The charitable tax donation credit is one of the recommendations we brought to the committee. I think 22 million Canadians take advantage of that credit. Basically everybody gives to charity, adults; it's extraordinary. We're very generous. So the credit becomes very important.

Right now it's unnecessarily complex; it's two-tier. It's 16% for the first $200 and then it jumps to 29% and you can split it with your spouse and you can roll it over in multiple years. What we're saying is that having different rules for $200 is just a little out of step. I think even as a first step, we could up it to 29% across the board and then even look at raising the credit a little further.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Okay, thank you very much.

Mr. Lewis, maybe you could expand on one of the recommendations you spoke a little bit about, ensuring that first-nations-controlled institutions have access to all grants and special funding available to mainstream colleges and universities, including research and research chairs.

I wonder if you could expand on that a little in terms of the concerns you might have in terms of overlap, that you would fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial or territorial governments in that regard. I know that's an issue for you in terms of wondering if you are one or the other. Is that a step you're prepared to recommend, that it become more mainstream and that it be a direct funding relationship?

[Trevor Lewis]

To answer your question, yes and no. A direct funding relationship is what we would want or what we would see, but we would see it as an added segment or a third segment of the existing education system.

Right now, we have colleges and universities. We would like to see aboriginal institutes right beside them. It makes it more complicated when we talk about jurisdiction, because it's not like having more institutes within provinces under their jurisdiction; it's in between both. It's hard to explain. It's not becoming mainstream, but it's consistently having our own identity alongside the other ones that exist already.

I don't know if that answers your question.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Yes, it's helpful.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Thank you very much for coming and presenting to the committee. We'll take it in due consideration as we consider our report to the House.

With that, we'll adjourn the meeting.