The following essay was originally published in the February 2025 edition of Critical Links.
If the primary purpose of your organization is "advancement of religion", and all your group does is proselytize, it is eligible for charitable status in Canada. Centre for Inquiry Canada documented that this single policy choice costs Canadians over $3.2 billion every year in its Cost of Religion in Canada reports.
Every year, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance publishes a report containing recommendations for the following year's budget. The latest report, published in December 2024, contained Recommendation 430: "Amend the Income Tax Act to provide a definition of a charity which would remove the privileged status of “advancement of religion” as a charitable purpose."
There are many reasons why this would be good public policy:
- Financial: In a time of high deficits, saving Canadians taxpayers over $3,000,000,000 annually is wise financially, and good politics.
- Philosophical: Canada is (or should be!) a secular nation, where the government is neutral in matters of religion, neither supporting nor suppressing religious expression. Giving a multi-billion dollar subsidy to organizations that self-declare their primary purpose to be evangelizing is the government playing favourites.
- Protecting Canadian sovereignty: Canada did not decide the criteria Canada Revenue Agency's uses to determine which organizations are eligible to be recognized as charities. We inherited these rules from Britain, which made a decision over a century ago, based on the introduction to a law over 400 years old. Canada has never amended them. It's well past time for Canadians to decide what constitutes a charity in Canada.
- Accuracy: Trying to convince others to view the world as you do is certainly permissible, but it's hardly a charitable act. Such organizations should be non-profits, not charities.
To minimize disruption, the implementation could proceed in two phases:
- Announce a deadline (say, the end of 2025) after which organizations may no longer apply to become a charity with the primary purpose of "advancement of religion".
- Give existing charities with a primary purpose of "advancement of religion" a deadline (say, the end of 2028) to either:
- Convert to a non-profit organization; or
- Declare an alternate primary purpose (advancement of education, alleviation of poverty, or other purposes beneficial to the community).
An administratively straightforward process should be created for religious charities to convert to a non-profit or designate an alternate primary purpose.
Canada has just taken the first step on the path to becoming a more fair, just, and secular country. It's a long road from a Finance Standing Committee recommendation to implemented policy, and CFIC will continue to press for removal of "advancement of religion" as a charitable goal until this becomes a reality.
