Mr. Speaker, what follows is the response from the Canada Revenue Agency, the CRA. In budget 2019, the government introduced three new tax measures to support Canadian journalism: the Canadian journalism labour tax credit, a 25% refundable tax credit on salaries or wages payable in respect of eligible newsroom employees for periods beginning on or after January 1, 2019; the digital news subscription tax credit, a 15% non-refundable personal income tax credit for qualifying digital news subscription costs paid by an individual to a qualified Canadian journalism organization, or QCJO, which applies to qualifying amounts paid after 2019 and before 2025; and a new type of qualified donee called a registered journalism organization, or RJO, for not-for-profit journalism organizations, which is in effect as of January 1, 2020.
To be eligible for any of the three tax measures, an organization must first be designated as a QCJO. Once designated, a QCJO must meet additional criteria for each of the tax measures. Designation as a QCJO in and of itself does not mean that an organization is eligible for any or all of the tax measures.
In response to parts (a) and (b) of the question, the confidentiality provisions under section 241 of the Income Tax Act prevent the CRA from releasing taxpayer information unless an exemption exists. No exemption exists to permit the disclosure of information related to QCJO designations or taxpayer information related to the Canadian journalism labour tax credit. As such, the CRA is able to provide neither a list of organizations that have been designated as QCJOs nor information on organizations that have claimed the Canadian journalism labour tax credit on their income tax returns.
In accordance with subsection 241(3.4) of the act, the CRA has made public the list of qualifying digital news subscriptions. The list includes the names of the organizations that have requested confirmation that the subscriptions they offer qualify for the digital news subscription tax credit, together with the names of the qualifying subscriptions and associated publications.
In addition, the CRA also makes public the names of journalism organizations that are registered journalism organizations, through the list of registered journalism organizations. The disclosure of this information is permitted by subsection 241(3.2) of the act.