Thank you for the question.
Ten per cent is a reasonable percentage. It was recommended by the Chief Electoral Officer. I believe it's also a percentage that's used by the Canada Revenue Agency. In terms of considering 90% overall revenue, there's a 10% leeway. It's a factor of 10, which is also easy to work with in terms of the calculation. There are some practical reasons for the 10%, as well as the commissioner's noting that 10% is considered a significant amount in contributions.
If it's helpful, I would note, too, the proposal in the bill that third parties will not be able to contribute to each other any longer, and that the definition of “own funds”, if they meet the threshold of 10% or less, excludes contributions of any kind. “Own funds” refers to the third party's own funds, generated in Canada.
As a very simple example, if there were donations of $500 that the third party received, and they had $9,000 in own funds.... Let's say they receive $500 from a foreign entity, a U.S. entity or something like that. That's $10,000 overall in revenues that they've received. They have only $500 in donations, so they would meet that threshold of being under the 10%, but they could use only $9,000, their own funds. They wouldn't be able to use the $500 that came from elsewhere. They're limited to their own funds. They would have to then report if they meet that threshold. The report would provide some transparency as to where those funds come from, given the challenges noted around money being fungible.