Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Karen Cooper. I'm a lawyer with the law firm of Drache Aptowitzer LLP. My clients are almost exclusively charities and not-for-profits. I also teach tax law and the law of charities and not-for-profits at the University of Ottawa. I chair my local hospital board, and I'm the past chair of an organization called the Canadian Land Trust Alliance. I expect it's in respect of that latter role that I was invited to speak.
The Canadian Land Trust Alliance is an organization that represents land trusts across Canada, and the particular measure of concern to them in Bill C-63 would be the changes related to the ecological gifts program. I was given the understanding that this is what you wanted to hear from me about.
Land trusts are non-profit charitable organizations whose main objectives include the long-term protection and management of ecologically sensitive lands. Sometimes they own those lands outright; they acquire them through donation or purchase. Sometimes they enter into something called a “perpetual” conservation agreement, and sometimes an easement or covenant; in Quebec, they're called “servitudes”, real or personal servitudes. The general objective is to preserve or restore the ecological features of the land.
We have about 200,000 individual members and donors and 20,000 volunteers. Collectively, they've protected over seven million acres. That's seven million acres of privately protected land, and this protection contributes to our network of diverse natural landscapes. They play a really important role in delivering on the government's species at risk, biodiversity, and climate change goals.
One of the reminders I like to provide folks is to say that when we're dealing with the ecological gifts program, we're dealing with an incentive in the Income Tax Act that in fact relates more to environmental policy than philanthropic objectives, necessarily. It's a measure that's designed to serve both needs, not just to support philanthropic giving.
Most land trusts are eligible recipients under Environment and Climate Change Canada's ecological gifts program, and there's a whole series of amendments in Bill C-63 that are related to that program. To the end of October 2016, there were 1,260 ecological gifts made, valued at over $807 million. It's a tiny program with an environmental focus, but the dollar values tend to be fairly large because they relate to fairly significant pieces of land.
Most of these ecological gifts contain areas designated as being of national or provincial significance, and many are home to Canada's species at risk. To participate in the ecogifts program, donors must have the ecological value of the land certified in advance, and then also the monetary value of the land certified in advance. Normally, these transactions don't close until the government or an independent panel has in fact certified that this is land that's important to protect and that there is no further disagreement with respect to the valuation.
In addition, for land trusts to participate in the program, the land trusts have to adhere to and implement Canadian land trust standards and practices. These practices promote integrity, perpetual sustainability, fiscal diligence, and good governance. There's an adherence to these standards and practices because generally land trusts recognize that actions of an individual land trust reflect upon the trust community at large.
As I said, Bill C-63 proposes a number of measures to better protect these gifts of ecologically sensitive land. I actually have no specific comments. I was invited to speak and, I believe, take your questions about these provisions given my expertise in the area. I'm more than thankful for that, and I welcome that opportunity.