Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise today in support of my colleague's motion. The timing is certainly right. We are in the middle of prebudget consultations. It has been looked at a couple of times already, but this year it may have a little more credibility when it comes to the floor.
For the record the motion is “That, in the opinion of this House, the government should bring in legislation making the tax deduction for contributions to charitable organizations no less”—and I stress no less—“than the tax deduction for contributions to political parties”.
Examples have been stated before. Someone giving a $100 donation to a political party will receive a $75 federal tax credit, while a $100 charitable donation, which is the average donation given to a charity or less than that, only garners $17. There is quite a disparity. Motion No. M-318 sets out to change that and to make it better for everyone.
I would like to make it clear that we are not calling for more more complexity to the tax code or for more government expenditures. Motion No. M-318 urges the government to make the charitable tax credit no less than the political tax credit. The words “no less” give the government flexibility to change the tax credit in any way it likes. It can lower the political donation tax credit, increase the charitable donation tax credit, or have the credit amounts meet somewhere in the middle, as long as the charitable donation tax credit is no less than the political donation tax credit.
This means the costs of implementing Motion No. M-318 could be as little or as extensive as the parliamentary committee decides. The last member spoke to this issue and said that it would cost $125 million to implement this type of system. It is not really a cost but an investment in communities. Charities certainly do pick up the slack when governments at all levels pull back. We have seen tremendous lines at soup kitchens and so on. Charitable organizations are picking up that slack, not governments. Governments are actually helping to create the problem.
If the government looks at the value charities bring to society, it has to admit that giving a huge break for political contributions represents misplaced priorities when compared to the meagre credit it gives to the efforts of Canadians to support the poor and the vulnerable. As the member for Ottawa Centre talked about, despite its efforts the federal government still must do more to help charities.
For instance, the Ottawa Citizen reported last year that Michael Hall, the director of research at the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy doubted “the shortfall left by government cuts is being covered by increased donations. That is a huge gap to fill”, he said.
To counter this negative trend and help charities meet the increased demands on their resources, Motion No. M-318 recommends that the tax deduction for contributions to charitable organizations again be no less than political ones. The government can play with the numbers and make them fit as it sees fit.
Government members have recognized this disparity in the past. In the 1996 prebudget report by the Standing Committee on Finance and again in 1997 it was recommended that the government enhance the charitable tax credit for donations to charities currently funded by governments to make it as generous as the current political tax credit for small donations to political parties. Not for the first time, the Minister of Finance ignored the recommendations. By the rhetoric we are hearing this morning, it seems as though the Liberals have already determined that this prebudget consultation is finished and again there will be no charitable status changes. That prebudget consultation is not yet done so they are a little bit ahead of themselves in that regard.
One can only assume that the federal government ignored the recommendation in the 1996 and subsequent budgets because of, as it says, public financial costs. As Canada moves into this post-deficit world however, levelling the playing field between political parties and charities that leverage more money to do their good works in the community is a very timely idea. It has become more affordable to the government and as such deserves broader public debate and discussion. That is what we are doing here today.
I find it interesting that the report specifies charities currently funded by government. I take that to mean members recognize the taxpayers' dollars doled out by government generosity could be replaced by money doled out by the taxpayers themselves, that big brother knows best. We are saying get that money back to the communities where it came from to begin with.
The report also uses the phrase “to make it as generous as the current political tax credits”. This is one option, but as I mentioned earlier, we are not trying to push the government to commit to more expenditures, only to examine how it has skewed the present tax structure. I am interested in promoting two things here today, simplicity and fairness in the tax system and that this government has an obligation to recognize that contributions to worthy charities should be as valuable as contributions to political parties.
Volunteers are the backbone of charitable donations to the groups that they serve and also form the fabric of the communities they seek to make better. We as legislators must be aware of that and continue to support their efforts.
