Madam Speaker, I am pleased to add my contribution to the debate on Bill C-312 proposed by my hon. colleague.
There are some fundamental, philosophical questions to be asked when we have a bill like this one. When the government gives an exemption from taxation on income that is used to promote a charity or a political party, it becomes a tax expenditure. The Government of Canada by forgoing some revenue lands up indirectly subsidizing that particular activity.
If there is an organization in one of our communities whose job it is to pick up stray cats and keep them in a nice home with facilities and all such things for cats that is considered to be a socially beneficial activity, the government then feels it is justified in taking money from everybody in the whole country who pays taxes and putting some of it into subsidizing that activity.
Over the years in Canada the support of different charities and different organizations has grown into quite an industry. As a matter of fact, the finance department has a huge branch involved in the designation of charities. One problem that arises from this is that we now have a deputy minister and others who by the role of regulation and interpretation can determine which organization qualifies for the indirect subsidy and which one does not. It does make a substantial difference.
I know the parliamentary secretary said that small donations were not really driven by whether or not there was a tax exemption for them. That may well be because of the current tax law. The first $100 are not affected by it. Quite clearly one will not be giving a donation to somebody for $20 based on whether or not there is a tax benefit since there is not one. If it kicked in right away then perhaps there would be motivation.
Back in the old days it used to be that we could claim $100 of charitable donations even if none were made. We did not have to supply receipts. We could either do that or supply the receipts. It was always my argument that the person who was not able to accumulate $100 worth of receipts in a year for charity is probably such a cheap screw that he would not be giving anything so why should we give him $100. If there were no receipts it seemed to me that there should be no benefit at all because that is a person who does not reach out his hand to help charitable organizations or those in need.
Then we come to political parties. Political parties, according to governments of the past, are an activity which the taxpayer should be coerced to support indirectly through the granting of tax credits. In the old days it used to be a reduction of one's taxable income based on the amount of money given to a political party.
The rate at which political parties are indirectly subsidized by the taxpayer in general is much more generous than that for other organizations such as those that run safe houses for women and children who need a place to escape to when they are in danger or other organizations that help people who are ill.
I know several of those which basically run extended care centres for people with a long term illness. They are run as charitable organizations. My aunt was in one of those because the health care system in this country failed her and her family totally. She was moved into one of them so she could live out her final days with a good and reasonable amount of care.
Those organizations do not have nearly as much benefit and one could really wonder which one is better for society. Which activity provides a greater benefit to society as a whole, the existence of the Liberal Party or the existence of the extended care centre in the small town in Saskatchewan that looked after my aunt? I would contend that it was probably the extended care centre.
By the way, the family received donations to this extended care centre in lieu of flowers because of their great appreciation for the care she got.
The rate at which the government is indirectly subsidizing this should definitely be equal with that for a political party. I would even put my own political party into that category. It is as important to provide support for organizations like that as it is for even the Reform Party and certainly the Liberal Party and the other parties represented here in the House.
We then have the added question of who decides and how do they decide which organization gets the right to give tax receipts. That is a big problem which we have been made aware of just recently. The department tends to be rather discriminatory. It will accept one particular organization but not another, depending on what their supposed activities are and what their purposes are. Sometimes it is quite arbitrary. In my view, some of the situations that have come to my attention have been wrongly judged. These people then have a greater difficulty in raising money through donations.
My hon. colleague has put forward a bill that basically equalizes the contributions to charities as compared to those to political parties. With all due respect, I am not sure that I would go in that direction. I may have put it in the other direction. I would have perhaps considered bringing the political parties' benefit level down to where the charities were instead of what the member has done in bringing the charities up to where the political parties are.
They were quite far apart but there was a limitation on it for political donations. The maximum donation is $1,150 whereas for charitable donations, if I am not mistaken, it is now up to 50% of one's net income.
There is now a greater amount available for the charities even though the rate is lower. We need to consider this very carefully but I can certainly concur in principle with what my hon. colleague is doing. He is saying we should reflect what is valuable to Canadians. There is no doubt in my mind that most Canadians would consider the charities they support to be at least as valuable as the political parties, which many people unfortunately due to the growing cynicism across the country are failing to support.
I commend my colleague for bringing this bill forward. I hope that sometime in the near future we will actually be able to vote on something like this to bring a change and equality into this area.