Madam Speaker, the hon. member for Peace River is essentially attacking my speech.
I ask whether the hon. member is proud of intimidation through auditing. The government has cut funding for important organizations that do volunteer and charitable work, but it was able to find $8 million to give to the Canada Revenue Agency for the specific and sole purpose of auditing non-profit groups to intimidate them. Is the hon. member proud of that? Is the hon. member proud of the de-funding of organizations that dare to speak out and say something the government does not like? Is he proud that we are stifling debate and democracy in this country?
I hope he is not. I hope the support for philanthropy and philanthropic organizations shown by Conservative members will cause them to rethink the systematic policies of intimidating non-profit groups that speak out.
Democracy is about speaking out. It is about dissenting. It is about organizations telling a government of whatever stripe when the organization believes the government is on the wrong track or is missing an opportunity to improve people's lives. That is the function of civil society. That is the function of many of non-profit and philanthropic groups. They need to be free to be part of this country's public policy debate.
The charitable sector in Canada is enormous, with more than $100 billion in annual revenues. One must think about the contributions it is making to the public good. The charitable sector is approximately equal in size to the economy of British Columbia. Furthermore, in Canada it is made up of more than 160,000 organizations, over 1.2 million paid staff, which is a lot of jobs, and 6.5 million volunteers.
What is the impact on the volunteers for these groups and organizations of having a government that attacks the organizations for which they work and to which they donate? It is really difficult for Canadians who clearly want to contribute to the public good, but who have a government that attacks their organization.
Canadians are recognized around the world for their generosity and compassion. I hope we can maintain that profile and recognition at a time when the Conservative government is de-funding organizations, some of which have international reach and help people who are the poorest of the poor in other countries.
Many of these charitable organizations work in my constituency of Vancouver Quadra. It has a wide variety of charitable initiatives and people who contribute to those efforts, from affordable housing to protecting women in situations of family violence, to philanthropy in terms of arts, dance, opera, theatre. The Kitsilano Showboat is a wonderful example of a philanthropic non-profit organization that enriches the lives of people throughout Vancouver Quadra.
We continue to be inspired by the dedication of volunteers who give freely of their time to improve the lives of others.
Through Senator Mercer's persistence, dedication and hard work, and through the support of my colleague, the hon. member for Halifax West, I hope this bill will be passed by my colleagues in the House, as it has passed through the other place on several occasions before.
Last, I would hope that members on the Conservative benches would really think about the importance of philanthropy, as declared through National Philanthropy Day, and look to their ministers' and government's actions in de-funding, in muzzling, and in stifling dissent. Such actions essentially send a message to those in the philanthropic and volunteer sector that they may only speak in support of the government's actions or else they will be punished. What will that do to our democracy? It is completely unacceptable and has to stop.