The Canadian government has confirmed it has no plans to strip religious groups of their charitable status in the next federal budget.
The confirmation came from the office of Liberal MP Karina Gould, who is chair of the finance committee.
In a late September communication, Gould’s office said that charitable status for religious organizations “is not under review, and this government has no plans to change that. Any suggestion otherwise is false.”
Gould’s office went on to say that, “we respect the role faith-based organizations play in communities across the country, and religious organizations continue to enjoy charitable status under the same rules that apply to all charities in Canada.
“There have been no policy or legislative changes proposed that would revoke charitable status from religious groups including churches.”
A controversial recommendation
Gould’s response was in reply to allegations by a number of religious groups that the federal government plans to remove the advancement of religion as a charitable purpose from the Income Tax Act.
Those allegations were sparked by Recommendation 430 in an all-party report from the Standing Committee on Finance released in December 2024.
That report contained 462 recommendations to the government for its spring budget from various sectors, such as industry, agriculture, health and others.
The BC Humanist Association had recommended removing the advancement of religion from the Income Tax Act as one of four charitable purposes for which Canadian donors can claim a tax receipt. (The other three purposes are the relief of poverty, the advancement of education and other purposes beneficial to the community.)
The BC Humanist Association had made the same recommendation before. But this was the first time it had made it into the pre-budget report.
BC Humanist Association Executive Director Ian Bushfield told Canadian Affairs in an interview in January that he did not expect to see it implemented. At best, he hoped it might start a conversation among Canadians about the topic.
“Why should we privilege religion for charitable purposes at a time when Canada is becoming less religious?” he said.
Bushfield noted that other groups, such as book clubs or golf clubs that serve select members, are not eligible for charitable status, while places of worship can give tax receipts to their members.
That, he said, was a question “that deserves larger consultation … we would welcome that.”
Opposition mounts
Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised to announce a new budget Nov. 4 — putting an end to the 2024 all-party report to the finance committee and prompting calls for new recommendations.
However, religious groups and others have continued to campaign against the 2024 report, including Campaign Life Canada and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. On Oct. 14, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy weighed in with its paper, Revoking The Charitable Status For The Advancement Of Religion: A Critical Assessment.
The Conservative Party of Canada has also campaigned against it, launching a petition opposing it on its website. The petition incorrectly states the recommendation was “endorsed by all parties EXCEPT the Conservatives.”
In fact, the dissenting opinion of the Conservatives in the 2024 report does not mention that recommendation.
When the federal government launched pre-budget consultations for its forthcoming budget, the BC Humanist Association said it intended to put forward the same recommendation again.
The new report has not yet been published; it is not known if that recommendation will once again be included.
However, Gould’s statement is clear that no changes are on the horizon. In it, she says, “the Government recognize the important role many churches play in providing crucial services to their communities and will continue to protect their ability to do so.”
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada referred to Gould’s statement as “the clearest, on-the-record statement that we have seen indicating that the government is not undertaking background work to propose a change to charitable status and is not planning such a change.
“This aligns with what we’ve been hearing anecdotally from different sources, but it is reassuring to see an official source put it in writing. We are very encouraged by this confirmation.”
