Madam Speaker, I am pleased to support this motion put forward by my hon. colleague.
The motion provides us with an opportunity to make a number of appropriate comments around the whole issue of charities. As the previous speaker indicated, we are talking about 80,000 organizations which have been identified as legitimate charities in this country.
The definition of a charity needs some work. I think the definition we use goes back many decades and I suspect that the nature of charity and charity work in Canada has changed significantly from the 1920s and 1930s.
One thing we can say is the recent years of government deficit fighting efforts have really hit charities hard. Charities in Canada now unfortunately have to designate an inappropriate amount work by volunteers simply pursuing fundraising activities.
I think we all appreciate that those who volunteer and those who work for charities are really those people who weave the social fabric of which we are so proud in our country. These are the people who donate their time, effort, energy, talents and in many cases money to enable these charities to provide the services that hitherto governments often provided. Because of the reduction in government services, because of the downsizing of government, because of the trimming of government budgets, we now are looking toward charity organizations to pick up that void and to provide more services than ever before.
It is a bit disappointing to read the information that has been provided in terms of charitable donations. They are at a virtual standstill. The growth simply is not there. The Canadian Centre for Philanthropy says that we have to find ways and means to encourage more Canadians to participate in the development of the social and supportive caring fabric of our country through charity giving.
Recently the Standing Committee on Finance made the following recommendation: “Government should consider enhancing the charitable tax credit for donations to charities currently funded by government to make it as generous as the current political tax credit for small donations to political parties”.
Let us acknowledge the fact that in our effort as a country, which I support enthusiastically and which I endorse, we encourage people to participate in the democratic process. There is no question that for a democracy to work effectively, people have to participate as directly as possible. Therefore, as we all know, for a $100 contribution to a political party in Canada the donor will receive a $75 tax credit. That is a real incentive for average men and women across the country to make donations to the political party of their choice. We endorse that.
As a result, I think it is fair to say that when we look at the political contributions to at least some of the political parties, a massive number of Canadians participate in supporting the political party of their choice as a result of this rather encouraging tax write-off.
The motion states:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should bring in legislation making the tax deduction for contributions to charitable organizations no less than the tax deduction for contributions to political parties.
I support that principle. As other speakers have indicated, Motion No. 318 does not specifically recommend that the government increase the tax credit for donations to charities from 17% as it is now to 75%, although this is an option. Rather, it allows the government to use its discretion to choose the optimal tax credit rates, making sure the charity tax credit is no less than the political tax credit.
I want to flag a concern at this point. I know this is votable. I want to indicate an area that I think deserves consideration. Representing the voices of the New Democratic Party, we are not suggesting that the level of political contribution should be reduced, but we are saying that the deduction for giving to charities should be increased to that same level.
We are talking about those that are the weavers of our social fabric and now we look more and more to those in the charity sector and the volunteer sector to provide that level of service. We think it is appropriate to re-examine this whole issue. I think all of us would say that 17% is simply inadequate, that it does not reflect the reality of our country.
Is it appropriate that people who donate their energies to the charity of their choice spend such an inappropriate amount of time raising funds? I do not think an evening goes past now when in our places of residence here in the nation's capital or back in our own constituencies there is not a knock at the door from someone raising money. Sometimes three or four times in the evening there is a knock on the door and somebody is asking for a donation to a particularly worthy cause or a worthy initiative or a worthy endeavour.
You make the contributions because you realize that if you do not, that person will not be able to carry out the charitable work they wish to do. But it troubles me that that person has to spend that evening going door to door raising funds and not out providing the service or doing the charitable work that person is actually interested in. They do not join these organizations to go on fundraising activities.
I think this is a step forward. I think it is a step in the right direction. That is why I say on behalf of those of us in the New Democratic Party that we are pleased to support this initiative by my colleague for Fraser Valley.
We are not suggesting that we reduce the tax deductions available for political contributions but that we enhance those associated with charitable giving.
I want to talk a bit about the simplicity of the matter. We have to acknowledge that there are two sets of rules: one for charities and one for political parties. Therefore, if the tax system treated political parties and charities equally the system would be simpler to explain, certainly a lot simpler to write and a lot simpler to understand.
There is one thing we should strive for as parliamentarians during these complex and changing times. We look at tax forms and shudder and dread the day we have to sit down at a table to try to figure them out, fill them out, or dread the day we have to hire an accountant to do that on our behalf. We have to struggle to make such forms simpler.
The motion would move us in the direction of simplifying the tax return and making it equivalent in terms of whether one is making a political contribution or a contribution to one of Canada's worthy charities.
It is a big business. It is a $4 billion business annually. We are talking about a considerable amount of money relatively speaking. We have to acknowledge that this unfortunately is a growing trend, that more and more the realities of our fiscal programs suggest that charities will be providing those necessary and crucial services in the future.
We have always relied on charities, but changing times make them even more important today. It is with enthusiasm that we support the motion. We are looking forward to the vote and we are looking forward to seeing legislation move through this House and subsequently on to the other place, and the sooner the better.