Madam Speaker, it has been a pleasure to bring forward this motion. It has been described various ways, as apple pie and motherhood and a few other things. However, the intend of the motion was much more serious than that.
Had the member for Wentworth—Burlington read my initial speech, he would have realized I mentioned him in my speech. I mentioned that the accountability of charitable organizations is a good issue, one he has championed and I do not deny him that.
Everything cannot be done in this one motion. It has to do with helping those charities I think we all agree have done a good job of helping Canadian society. I hope that no one on either side of the House is denying that many charities do a lot of good work.
This motion also has come under challenge by the finance minister who said it would deny larger donors to charitable organizations the right to contribute large sums of money. That is just not true.
The reason the motion is crafted this way is to encourage the small giver, the ones who are probably typical of an average Canadian giver who gives a few hundred dollars to charity, and to help those people do more with their money. This motion is not asking the government to give more money to charities. It is allowing those individuals to contribute more and be recognized for it.
Regarding the other rules the finance minister has brought in to encourage other donors to contribute large amounts to charitable organizations, in my first speech I acknowledge that was also a good idea. I appreciate the initiative of the finance minister in that area. However, I wish the finance minister would not try to mix apples and oranges together because we are talking about two totally different issues.
The motion I think does have wide support. It also has the moral suasion behind it that we in political parties would argue do some good in society or we think we do at times, but we do not have more of a moral bat to swing than charities. That is for sure. The accountability is no more stricter here than it is for charities.
The finance committee has already brought forward an idea and this is a takeoff on that. It is high time we recognize charities do good work in this country. We want to encourage more people. We want to become a culture of giving. That culture can be helped by a government policy that says political contributions will not be considered more favourably than charitable donations.
The motion is very timely in view of the current budgetary situation in Canada. It is very doable. For a modest fee we can create something I think we all support, looking after our neighbour as we would look after our own.
For that reason I am pleased that this motion has come forward. I look forward to the vote tonight. I ask members on all sides of the House to vote yea in favour of Motion No. 318.