Charitable tax status for Canadian religious groups is safe

Religious groups can relax: the federal government is not planning to remove their charitable tax status.

Not that it ever planned to do that. But now we have an official word from the office of Liberal MP Karina Gould, chair of the House of Commons Finance Committee, that it’s not going to happen.

In an email to Al Postma, the Canadian executive director of the Christian Reformed Church (a copy of which I have seen), her office stated there is no plan to remove religion as a charitable purpose from the Canadian Income Tax Act.

Charitable status for religious organizations “is not under review, and this government has no plans to change that,” her office said. “Any suggestion otherwise is false.”

And there sure were a lot of false suggestions! Various Christian and other groups had issued frantic and alarming warnings over the past 10 months about what they saw as a nefarious plot hatched inside the Liberal party to attack churches by eliminating their ability to give out tax receipts to donors.

“Save Christian Canada!” said the Roman Catholic Campaign Life website, accusing the government of what it called a “radical” plan to hobble churches.

The organization’s claims grew even more outrageous, claiming this supposed plan would also allow the government “to seize the assets of religious organizations, shutting down churches, food banks, and faith-based charities across Canada.”

“Holy Horror: The Campaign to Kill Off Canada’s Religious Charities” was the headline for an article in C2C Journal, which is affiliated with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, a Winnipeg-based conservative think tank.

The Conservative Party of Canada also weighed in, stoking fears through a petition that falsely claimed the Liberal government had launched a “mean-spirited attack on religious organizations.”

In fact, as I reported in this newspaper in January when this issue first became public, there never was any plan — by the Liberal party or anyone else — to take away the charitable tax status of religious groups in Canada.

That false narrative was based on a misinterpretation of a single recommendation published in the all-party report from the Standing Committee on Finance released in December 2024.

Titled “Pre-Budget Consultations In Advance Of The 2025 Budget to the 44th Parliament,” the report — which was based on conversations with Canadians across the country and reviewed by members of the Liberal, Conservative, NDP and Bloc parties — compiled a list of 462 suggestions from Canadians from various sectors for the government to consider for this year’s planned spring budget.

The main purpose of the consultations, which takes place before every budget, is to let politicians hear from Canadians about things they think should be considered when budgets are created. The recommendations are for consideration only; they are not binding.

Among the recommendations in the report was one from the B.C. Humanist Association to remove the advancement of religion from the Income Tax Act — not allowing it to continue as one of four charitable purposes that allow Canadians to get a tax receipt for donating to charity.

The Humanist Association had made that recommendation before, based on its belief that a secular country should not favour religious groups of any belief system. But this was the first time their suggestion had made it into the list of recommendations in the pre-budget report.

As it turned out, the whole exercise was made moot when prime minister Justin Trudeau resigned and an election was called for April. That election resulted in a new government under Prime Minister Mark Carney; in July, the finance committee issued a new call for recommendations from Canadians for the Nov. 4 budget.

But it would have been moot even without that change. As one Liberal MP told me: “The Humanists can recommend it all they want. It will never be implemented.”

But that didn’t stop the alarmists, who continued to operate as if the report was still active. That’s why Postma to reach out to Gould’s office in September. He kept hearing from clergy in his denomination who wanted to know if the claims about a government plot against their churches was true.

And now we have a new budget coming next week. In preparation, the finance committee held consultations in summer for the government to consider. The B.C. Humanists said they submitted the same recommendation again.

Since the new report has not yet been made public, we don’t know if it has been included again. But it doesn’t matter. Gould’s office said the “there have been no policy or legislative changes proposed that would revoke charitable status from religious groups including churches.”

This is heartening news for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC), one of the groups that was concerned about the possible change. “This is 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,” the EFC said about the statement from Gould’s office. “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.”

So — that should put it to rest, right? I hope so, but I’m not so sure. It’s always easier to get attention using fear tactics than by taking a reasoned and reasonable course of action. I won’t be surprised if some groups continue to raise the alarm.

At the very least, if someone tells you the government is planning to strip faith groups of their charitable tax status, you can offer a helpful corrective.

faith@freepress.mb.ca

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