Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you very much for this opportunity to discuss the serious and unintended consequences of Bill C‑19 for the charitable and non-profit sector.
Like many other organizations in the sector, Philanthropic Foundations Canada, which is the largest national network of private and public foundations in the country, welcomed the government's budget announcement that it would adopt the spirit of Bill S‑216, the purpose of which is to treat organizations that contribute to the common good on an equitable basis even if they do not have official charitable status.
However, Bill C‑19 does no such thing. In fact, if passed in its present form, it would undermine the operational environment by adding more complexity and risk through overly prescriptive statutory measures. I believe that the government and opposition parties are fully aware of the problems involved and that there is a common willingness to correct these unintended effects.
With Imagine Canada, Cooperation Canada and leading charitable lawyers, we have provided three simple amendments that would remove the worst of these unintended consequences. These have already been submitted to the clerk of this committee. Together, we continue to offer our co-operation to fix Bill C-19.
Given the vast and complex set of urgent challenges facing our communities, our collective focus must be to encourage adaptive, learning-oriented results management, not to impose, in law, seven narrow and mandatory measures on all forms of partnership.
The former—that is, Bill S-216—offers real accountability to funders and communities alike who work across a myriad of partnerships. The latter—that is, Bill C-19 in its current form—is a straitjacket that will hinder social innovation, continue the damaging colonial practices of de facto direction and control, and ultimately restrict the flow of charitable dollars to those who need them the most. Let's focus on outcomes—