Hello, and thank you to the Standing Committee on Finance for allowing me a few minutes to address your honourable members.
I'm here today on behalf of all the affiliates and community members of the Kingston and District Labour Council. I'm sensing it's quite a different position or background from that of a lot of my esteemed colleagues here.
We have been chartered with the Canadian Labour Congress since 1956. I'm Joan Jardin, and I'm the treasurer of the labour council. We represent over 40 member unions and 156 union locals in the Kingston region. Our membership totals almost 10,000 workers, in addition to many community coalitions and groups. We are active in labour concerns and in employment, municipal, provincial, federal, and social issues.
As you're aware, there's a strong partnership between organized labour in Kingston and the United Way serving Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox, and Addington. I have personally been in the campaign cabinet as labour liaison for over seven years, and I've also worked on the citizens review panel, where we do the real accountability, not the paper accountability that can be published in a quick snippet. We actually go to the agencies. We look at their income. We look at the programs. We take a look at their actual outcomes, and we also visit the organization. So we do the real accountability. We can actually take a look at the organizations. Just taking one piece out of the other really is information in a vacuum and really does pit people against each other.
It's due to this very important relationship that we feel it's necessary to inform you of our thoughts surrounding Bill C-470. I hope you've received a copy of the letter that we have sent. If passed, this legislation would have a far-reaching impact, not only on the charitable sector, but on many institutions, such as schools, hospitals, universities, and more. To the extent that this bill seeks to further strengthen transparency and disclosure, we are in principle supportive. There are, however, some serious issues that the Kingston and District Labour Council sees with the bill. The Kingston Labour Council has identified five areas of concern, which will have a direct and negative effect on our community. On behalf of those I represent, I sincerely ask that this bill not be passed as written and that this committee consider all ramifications of the language in this piece of legislation.
Also, I wear another hat--and I haven't actually seen all the amendments proposed, because I actually have a full-time job in addition to working for agencies--in that I'm a teacher, and when I look at this, it seems as though there's been a problem, and you're trying to hurt the class, and I don't think any of you would like that. If there are some particular issues, we address those issues, and we find ways to deal with those. Also, I believe in accountability, but I don't believe in pretend accountability, so I think we really have to make sure we're not just making extra work for people, but that we actually are looking deep into the very important issues of charities. I wish we didn't need charities, but unfortunately we do.
First, of course, is disclosure. The disclosure requirements could be quite problematic for the vast majority of charities that are very small and have very few employees. The small charities will be forced to publicly disclose names and salaries of their staff. Of course, given the amendment changing it to $100,000, that disclosure will be a bit limited, but especially if it's a small charity, it will certainly be possible to pinpoint who they are, and that's a bit of an issue.