Proposed bill, though well-intentioned, raises questions.

• Author: Broder, Peter
• Position: Not-for-Profit Law

In what is becoming a quite regular occurrence, the latest Parliamentary session saw introduction of a Private Member's Bill related to charities. Bill C-458, sponsored by Kitchener-Waterloo MP Peter Braid and given first reading in the House of Commons in late October, calls for an annual National Charities Week in late February and extension of the period for which charitable receipts can be claimed for a calendar year into the first 60 days of the following year.

On their face, the measures proposed in the Bill are not as troublesome as the provisions contained in the last charity-related Private Member's Bill, C-460. That Bill passed the House of Commons but died on the Senate Order Paper when the last election was called. Bill C-460 would have imposed salary reporting requirements on registered charities that would have been administratively cumbersome for both the organizations themselves and for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and which could have had untold consequences for staff recruitment and retention by charitable sector groups.

Bill C-458's goals are laudable. It is designed to foster increased charitable giving through the awareness-raising associated with having a designated week for charities and by aligning treatment of receipted charitable donations with current practice with respect to the treatment of Registered Retirement Saving Plan (RRSP) contributions. The latter changes would, as with RRSPs, create a 14month receipt eligibility period for each calendar year.

It might be wise, however, to temper enthusiasm for the Bill until some possible effects of its proposed measures have been thoroughly studied. Among the things that ought to be considered are:

* any administrative burden that the provisions might place on either the CRA or charities themselves;

* how the changes would impact on charities that have structured their fundraising campaigns to coincide with traditional holiday giving; and

* with respect to timing, the impact of placing charitable donations in direct competition with RRSP contributions.

Many large charities have sophisticated fundraising infrastructure in place and will be easily able to modify their systems to accommodate changes to solicitation materials and receipting practices stemming from the extension of eligibility 60 days into a subsequent calendar year. Smaller organizations, or those that rely heavily on volunteers, may not even be aware of the change and may not respond as quickly in...