Political activities update for charities.

AuthorBroder, Peter

The much-anticipated work on reviewing the guidance and rules around what political activities Canadian registered charities can undertake has now been begun. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recently announced that it will hold a consultation on that topic. The consultation will be both online and in-person.

The consultation will consider, among other things, awareness of the political activity rules among charities, the challenges experienced with the current CRA guidance in this area and whether that guidance helps or hinders charities in advancing their causes or the interests of their stakeholders. It will also consider potential improvements to the guidance content--including the description of political activity, the description of partisan political activity and information on charities' accountability mechanisms--and the form of the guidance.

The CRA has been moving in recent years toward delivery of guidance by means other than written documents, such as videos and webinars, and the consultation is also seeking input on the ways through which the regulator can most effectively deliver its message with respect to the political activity rules.

Lastly, but perhaps over the long term most importantly, the question of whether there should be changes to the rules governing political activities and, if so, what those changes should be, is being canvassed.

A five-person consultation panel--drawn from sector leaders and allied professionals--has been established as part of the process, and is slated to make recommendations informed by the feedback received online and in-person to the Minister in Spring 2017.

However, the consultation being under the auspices of the CRA and mandated to look primarily at the administrative aspects of the political activity rules may not be a good omen for those hopeful of broader change. Any amendment of legislation would have to be put forward by the Department of Finance, rather than the CRA. So the initiative having been rolled out in this way leaves it uncertain if, or how, the government intends to pursue the broader reform contemplated in the Liberal election platform, which included language on modernizing "the rules governing the charitable and not-for-profit sectors" and "clarifying the rules governing 'political activity,' and spoke of a resulting "new legislative framework".

These reforms are needed. By happenstance, a matter currently before the courts shows why.

While the consultation process for...

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