Tories would boost charitable tax credit

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This article was published 08/09/2023 (771 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

STEINBACH — Manitoba’s Progressive Conservatives have promised to nearly double the charitable donation tax credit if voters put them back in office.

“Today’s announcement is about what it really means to be a Manitoban,” said longtime MLA Kelvin Goertzen as he announced the Tories’ latest campaign promise in his constituency Friday.

He was joined at a park on Steinbach’s Main Street by fellow Tory candidates from southern Manitoba and members of the Steinbach-based charity Island Breeze Manitoba, who performed after the announcement.

The changes would increase the rebate on the first $200 charitable contribution to 20 per cent from 10.8 per cent and contributions over $200 to 25 per cent from 17.4 per cent, Goertzen said.

“We’re encouraging more people to give to charities. Those charities are doing great work around the province. Often they’re relieving some social concerns that individuals have,” including mental health issues and addictions. “I believe it’s an investment that will pay off.”

Goertzen said the increased charitable tax credit is expected to cost the treasury $12 million annually.

“It’s going to save and benefit far more than it will ever cost because of the impact that it will have on individuals,” he said.

Goertzen, who has a law degree and has held several top cabinet positions, including justice minister, said he benefited from a nearby charitable food bank while growing up in a single-parent home in Manitoba Housing.

“I consider myself to be very lucky,” said Goertzen, who was a child when his alcoholic father died.

“If you look at the trajectory of an 11-year-old kid growing up in government housing, who came from addiction and a broken family, the odds are I wouldn’t be here making this announcement today. I’d be in a whole lot of other sorts of difficult situations.” He credits a stable, caring mother, a safe, supportive community and wrap-around government supports — that he said the PCs plan to announce during the campaign — with his success.

When asked if he thinks his odds of succeeding in today’s social welfare system would be any different, Goertzen said he couldn’t say.

“There are certain things that are important to improve those odds… Government has a responsibility. Community has a responsibility as well,” and increasing the rebate on charitable deductions will encourage Manitobans to give more, he said.

The social safety net that aided Goertzen decades ago is hanging by a thread today, says the manager of a network of community development organizations.

“Social assistance rates haven’t increased at all in decades, under many governments,” Michael Barkman said Friday. “I think, definitely, it’s harder for folks to make ends meet right now and the social safety net has definitely deteriorated,” said Barkman with the Canadian Community Economic Development Network in Winnipeg.

“We’re having to fill the gap,” he said about non-profit organizations.

“Charity is really important in our province and we don’t want to critique that because it’s really important, but we can’t have charitable donations being the main thing that’s supporting our social services and community non-profits.”

The increased amounts would make Manitoba’s the most generous charitable tax credit in Canada, the PCs said in a news release.

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Encouraging Manitobans to be more generous is not an adequate response to a “crisis,” said Liberal leader Dougald Lamont said.

“We have a cost-of-living crisis, a health-care crisis and a justice crisis, and the PCs solution is to offer people who donate $200 to a charity an extra 17 bucks,” the candidate for St. Boniface said in an email.

“Manitobans have already been making up for the PCs’ failures for seven years, and now they expect Manitobans to step up even more,” Lamont said. “We need to rebuild public services for everyone so that Manitobans don’t have to depend on the kindness of strangers to eat or pay for their medication.”

When asked for comment on the PC campaign promise, the NDP instead called out the Tories’ leader. “Heather Stefanson couldn’t be bothered to stand behind this announcement (Friday). If the PC leader wants to campaign for the job of premier, she ought to show up and defend her government’s record of cuts,” the NDP statement said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.