Madam Speaker, it is an excellent question from my friend. I know that in his area of Prince George many of his constituents have lost their jobs in the forestry sector. I worked up there for many years in the hospital. It is a tragedy for those towns to go through those ups and downs because they are dependent in part on the resource sector.
We know that for every $1 that is donated the multiplier effect is $7 to $10. If the government were to provide a more lucrative tax credit to the individual donor, we would see a vast increase in monies that are available because the multiplier effect is great. It would actually save some of the taxpayers' money that the government uses in some of its programs. The principle behind it is one which I know my hon. friend very much adheres to as we do. That principle is to give people the opportunity to take care of themselves. We should maximize the capabilities that we have in our citizenry. We should ensure that people have the tools to do the great things they can do and make sure that government is not getting in the way.
That is why we would like to see this bill have an administrative structure that listens to the NGO community and adopts a framework that is easy to implement, that is open, transparent and has true accountability. My friend from Victoria, Henry McCandless, a former assistant deputy minister in the Office of the Auditor General said that true accountability is the obligation on the part of senior government officials and elected officials to tell the public what they are doing, why they are doing it and how much it is going to cost and then tell them what they have done with that in the future.