Thursday's budget arms the Canada Revenue Agency with $8-million over two years to ensure charities devote resources to charitable work and to improve transparency by asking them to disclose the extent to which their political activities are funded by foreign sources.
"[Some charities] are not acting like they're a charitable institution; they're acting like they're an environmental lobbyist - that's the big objection," said Frank Atkins, a University of Calgary economist. "They're hiding behind their charitable status."
The revenue agency says a charity is allowed to devote up to 10% of its total annual resources to political activities, but Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said this week the government has received "a lot" of complaints from Canadians who worry their donations are going toward political action rather than charity work.
"There is clearly a need, in our view, for more vigilance," Mr. Flaherty said.
Opponents of the move say this is part of a government ploy to silence oilsands critics and those who oppose the Northern Gateway pipeline project, claiming the crackdown fits into a pro-business, anti-environment budget.
"I think this is also about diverting charities away from the work they're doing into providing all of the dotted 'Is' and crossed 'Ts' for Revenue Canada," said NDP environment critic Megan Leslie, adding the rules will likely lead to random or complaints-based audits.
While the budget does not specifically mention environmental groups, Ms. Leslie said the government is clearly "attacking environmental charities," taking aim at organizations like Tides Canada, which through its foundation grants money to environmental and social activist groups mounting anti-industrial campaigns.
"Tides has been really outspoken about Northern Gateway. Tides has been really outspoken about supporting and keeping in place the tanker ban on the west coast of B.C., and the tanker ban gets in the way of the pipeline," she said. "Tides gets in the way of the great pipeline to China, and [the government] will do anything to shut down that opposition."
But the president and CEO of Tides Canada, Ross McMillan, downplayed the resources it dedicates to the environment sector, saying only about $600,000, or 3%, of the grants it distributed in 2011, went to oil sands or pipeline issues. The executive director of the David Suzuki Foundation, Peter Robinson, said nowhere near 10% of its activities are political and that less than 6% of its funding comes from foreign sources.
The question of foreign money being used to affect Canadian policy is chief among the government's concerns, Prof. Atkins said.
"What's happening out here is that whenever there's a regulatory approval process, it gets loaded up with all these obscure groups seemingly out of nowhere," he said, referring to "deep-pocketed foundations in the United States" challenging oil sands development and the pipeline project. "Even those using Canadian money are still not acting like a charitable institution."
Niels Veldhuis, a Fraser Institute vice-president, said there is no question the federal government believes some environmental groups are not abiding by the rules. "The government ought to look into that," he said.
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Source: national post
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