Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My name is Gregory Thomas. I am the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, representing 79,000 supporters across Canada. We are Canada's oldest and largest voice for smaller government, more accountability, and lower taxes.
We appreciate the invitation here today.
Our organization supports this legislation. We believe that similar legislation has been in place for charities for many years. The vast amount of tax relief afforded to labour organizations in the form of tax deductibility for union dues, tax-free status for core operations of labour organizations, and tax-free strike pay creates a public policy interest in having disclosure.
Our organization has a long and vigorous history of stepping on the toes of government in the interest of disclosure, governments of all stripes. We've locked horns with government members over the issue of whether golf green fees should be deductible; we say they shouldn't be. It's the same for hockey tickets: we're against it. We're against corporate welfare. We're against pork-barrelling. We try to be consistent, and in the course of our trying to be consistent, people sometimes get a misguided view of where our organization sits, but we take a principled stance in support of the spirit of this legislation.
With regard to the details, we're obviously out of our depth. We don't have a vast army of lawyers and specialists. On the notion that this bill is at risk of a charter challenge, this is Canada. Our jaywalking laws have been subject to a charter challenge. The only bill that's not at risk of a charter challenge is one that's never been passed.