Evidence of meeting #44 for Finance in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cider.
A video is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
I can continue afterwards, once the technicians have fixed the problem.
Liberal
Liberal
President and Chief Executive Officer, Imagine Canada
I don't hear it, Mr. Chair.
Unfortunately, Mr. Ste‑Marie, I can't answer in French.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
I understand completely—hence the importance of interpretation.
If it's okay with you, Mr. Chair, I could take my turn later, once the problem has been fixed.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Monsieur Ste-Marie, we'll suspend for a few minutes to see if we can fix this.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
We'll now resume.
Monsieur Ste-Marie, we were at two minutes when we paused, so you have four minutes remaining.
Bloc
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
We were at two minutes when we paused, so you have a good four minutes left.
Bloc
NDP
Daniel Blaikie NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Mr. Chair, the interpretation didn't seem to be working the whole time Mr. Ste‑Marie was speaking. It probably makes sense to give him six minutes, so that everyone can understand what he said during his first two minutes.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, MP Blaikie. Was it a full two minutes? I did not realize it was not working for the full two minutes.
We'll go to MP Ste-Marie, for six minutes.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for that, Mr. Blaikie.
I'd like to thank all the witnesses for being with us today. Their opening statements were very informative.
My first questions are for Mr. MacDonald.
Mr. MacDonald, my understanding is that the measures in Bill C‑19 are inadequate. Bill S‑216 would actually do a better job of meeting the needs expressed by various organizations.
How would Bill C‑19 impact equity-seeking groups wanting to work with charities?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Imagine Canada
Thank you for being patient.
I am going to respond in English.
It's really important as we are on the cusp of how Canada is changing to be able to evolve with that.
As we seek to address long-term issues of truth and reconciliation, systemic inequities, we find that many of the organizations that are serving those communities are, in fact, non-qualified donees. It is essential that the language of Bill C-19 be amended to enable these organizations to engage with charitable organizations so that they can create innovative, unique solutions while not reducing accountability to be able to provide service to those groups—their stakeholders, their constituents—and to ensure that we're moving forward as a nation.
Bloc
Gabriel Ste-Marie Bloc Joliette, QC
Thank you, Mr. MacDonald.
You also suggested amendments to the bill that the committee could recommend. I want you to know that they will certainly be discussed by the committee.
You referred to a shared platform. Can you tell us more about that?
How do the changes made under Bill C‑19 affect charitable partnerships of that nature?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Imagine Canada
That's a great question.
The term “shared platform” is commonly used to describe a situation where an organization hosts and provides a legal home for a project or initiative that's unincorporated and doesn't have its own legal status. It's like an incubator, if you are thinking about start-ups in the social impact world.
What we're seeking is to ensure that those organizations can participate in a way that is appropriate for them. Part of what we're really looking for here is to say that there need to be elements of context and reasonableness built into the system, because this one size fits all doesn't work for these types of operations.