Madam Speaker, I applaud the general premise of the member for Dauphin—Swan River that politicians should not be treated more favourably by the income tax system than charities.
However, I have a severe problem with what is happening in the, I would hasten to say, charitable industry in this country. It is a little disconcerting that there are over 70,000 registered charities, all entitled to the standard deduction which is afforded to people who are able to get their hands on a number. I wonder how useful a lot of these organizations are, how much of their intake is actually swallowed up in administration and salaries and so on.
Seventy thousand charities. There has to be something wrong there. They are not all Salvation Army or the Canadian Cancer Society. These are people who have their own little private axes to grind. They are getting a tax break which in many cases I do not think could be justified if we could do a serious audit on them.
All of us who read the daily papers know what is happening. Audits are being done on a very selective basis. People that are not necessarily in accord with the government of the day are having their numbers revoked, whereas other charities that are perhaps more friendly to the philosophy of the Liberal Party are not having their numbers revoked, even though they are engaged in proselytizing, evangelism or whatever one wants to call it.
On that basis we may have allowed this thing to get a little out of control. I do have some very grave misgivings about the member's bill.