Evidence of meeting #38 for Finance in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was charity.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:40 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
There's more than simply that. I don't have all the details, but certainly anything that's on the public portion of the information return is available on the website.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
I understand that.
Would that include employee wages?
January 31st, 2012 / 4:40 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
There is information about compensation on the information return. Charities are required to disclose how many full-time employees they have and to estimate how many part-time employees they have.
On the top 10 remunerated employees, they need to disclose within which salary ranges those salaries fall. There are nine different salary ranges, with the highest being $350,000 and above.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
4:40 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
It is.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Is there any measurement related to the efficiency of those operations now? I know it's very difficult to understand, and I don't know how I can grasp it myself, but when I looked at donating money to charities around the developing world, I looked at specific charities that had less than 5% administrative and delivery costs of the product.
Is that kind of thing reported overall?
4:40 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Registered charities need to indicate what their costs are in administering the charities. They have to report their administrative costs and fundraising costs, for example, to give a picture to potential donors and current donors as to what it represents for them to run their charities.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Are these all available on the public portion of the website for CRA?
4:40 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
They are.
Perhaps I can mention to the committee at this stage that we are looking at introducing a new feature for our website. There will be a summary page for each registered charity that will highlight some of the most relevant information, including expenditures on fundraising, administrative costs, program-related investments, and salaries. That will be highlighted. It can be a little bit difficult to find all of the information now because of the way the website is laid out. That point was actually made to us the last time we appeared before the committee, and by donors in focus groups. That information will hopefully be up and available sometime this summer.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Right.
You mentioned the top 10 remunerated employees of an organization. Are there any people who are not named within this proactive website, such as directors of the corporations, CEOs, and people like that, or are they all included within that employee rationale?
4:40 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
Directors of registered charities, the individuals who sit on the board, are not meant to be remunerated. The remuneration is in relation to the officers or employees of the charity. They're not named, in terms of their compensation information. However, there is information on the website on who the directors are of any given charity.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Would this information also include contractors who provide services to the charities or non-profit sectors?
4:40 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
I don't believe we provide that level of information. There may be some general numbers that are requested in terms of the expenditures that have been made in hiring individuals, but we do not ask them to name who those companies or individuals are.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
All right.
Have you heard anyone ask for that detail of information--for instance, corporations obviously providing services to these non-profit entities?
4:40 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
If the question is whether the--
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
Finally, since I have only one other question, I'm also interested in donations to other charities. Are those also proactively disclosed?
4:40 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
In answer to the first question, I'm not sure that we've heard from third parties who have been engaged by charities about further disclosure, if that was the question.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Jean Conservative Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB
All right, but the corporations themselves aren't listed.
Would other non-profit entities be listed, or not?
4:40 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
If a registered charity has made a gift to another registered charity, we do ask them to provide the details of the donation and who it's been made to.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
4:40 p.m.
Director General, Charities Directorate, Legislative Policy and Regulatory Affairs Branch, Canada Revenue Agency
It is, for--
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
Mr. Chair, I too want to take just a moment to thank Mr. Marston for putting up with some of us during some of our trips. You're just a very kind man; I know you work very hard, and we are truly going to miss you on this committee.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
Sorry.
I want to ask a couple of questions for clarification. I know we have more time to come around and I have some specific questions on something that was mentioned during pre-budget consultations. The stretch tax credit comes up quite often, so I'm going to get to that in a moment, but I want to ask about a couple of things on your slide. I'll start with Ms. Hawara.
What is a non-qualified donee?
