Finance committee  If the question is about money laundering, I'm concerned about money laundering and terrorism. But I have no reason to believe that any of these activities are money laundering. I understand that money laundering is a criminal offence, and I think people should be careful before they say that this is money laundering.

Finance committee  The U.S. charities file Form 990, which has a lot more information on it than we provide in the T-3010. One useful thing that has come out of this sort of comparison backwards and forwards is that a lot of the information that's come out has come from the U.S. Form 990s. I think we should have more robust information.

Finance committee  Thank you very much. My name is Mark Blumberg. I'm a lawyer and partner at the law firm of Blumberg Segal LLP in Toronto. I'm an editor of our firm's website, GlobalPhilanthropy.ca, which deals with legal and ethical issues facing Canadian charities. As I testified on May 8, the charity and non-profit sector in Canada plays a vital role in this country.

Finance committee  Yes, I think it's very important not only for the tax revenues, which are just a small piece of it, but also for the public trust, that we make sure that those sorts of schemes are not allowed to take place in Canada. I think, yes, it can free up some money that could be used for either tax incentives or more government funding of the sector, because remember, more than two-thirds of the revenue of the charities sector comes from government money.

Finance committee  We shouldn't have a chill on people doing political activities within the charity sector, but I don't think the budget has anything in it that will actually impede charities' involvement in political...so I don't have any problems with those proposals. I think the CRA's ability to suspend a charity if it doesn't file properly the T3010 is helpful, but it's not mainly on the political issue; it's mainly on other issues, like they don't say they have $10 million in fundraising costs—some charities—and they should.

Finance committee  Yes, I would suggest that we have more transparency, and if it's done even on a sliding scale, that could be fine as well. But there are lots of things that, if you look at the U.S. and the U.K., they ask charities that are very helpful that we should adopt in this country as well.

Finance committee  I think we have generous rules allowing Canadian charities to do political activities. They should do it. It's actually important, for an efficiency and effectiveness reason, that they are involved with it. But yes, they need to have good governance procedures. They need to make sure they follow the rules and understand the rules.

Finance committee  It's very possible. The Koch brothers apparently also provided a lot of money to the Cato Institute. I think there's an IRS investigation at the moment into some of that stuff. Yes, I think we should have a free flow of ideas. I don't mind money coming from outside the country, but I think we just have to be very open and realize transparently what's happening.

Finance committee  Anything is better than what we have right now. So even if you were to say we'll have disclosure of non-profits over $1 million only, that's a lot better than what we have right now, which is that there's no disclosure of any of these $80,000 to $100,000 organizations. I would point out that CRA has it on a database, so it just requires a change to section 241 to be able to release that sort of information.

Finance committee  They have different systems in the U.S. and the U.K., so you can't really make a direct comparison. But what I would say is this. I am hoping that there will be more international philanthropy, and that category can become more fulsome. Instead of nine charities, I hope there are a few hundred that will be on the list.

Finance committee  I would agree with that. I think we should increase the payout to 5% or 6% from the 3.5% and encourage foundations to spend money, rather than keep it in perpetuity and things like that.

Finance committee  I have no problem with that. Right now, we do have a sliding scale, in a sense. Most charities have under $100,000 in revenue. For example, they fill in less information on the financial side than one that has over $100,000. But you could have another sliding scale where, say, charities over $1 million would fill in another two or three pages.

Finance committee  There's no question that foreign foundations...I've seen a few of the 990s, the form in the U.S., and they disclose that they are involved in funding certain public policy and political discussions, not only in Canada but in other countries around the world.

Finance committee  I have no problem with that.

Finance committee  I would just suggest that right now every Canadian charity that receives foreign money has, for the last three years, had to disclose that it receives foreign money. You can always ask more questions. But I would point out that non-profits have to disclose nothing.