OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – Donations to religious charities in Canada have been in freefall since at least 2018 when the Liberal government under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to raise the basic charitable tax credit for churches to the same level as political donations.
According to Statistics Canada, the total value of donations made to religious organizations “fell 22 percent, or $1.4 billion,” over a five-year period from 2018 to 2023.
In a report titled Volunteering And Charitable Giving In Canada 2018 To 2023, as noted by Blacklock’s Reporter, StatsCan claimed the decline in “these organizations from 2018 to 2023 coincided with an overall decrease in participation in religious activities.”
Overall, donations for the time period went down from $14 billion each year to $13.4 billion while Canada’s population went up considerably.
The decline in donations to churches comes after a Conservative bill failed that would have made donations to religious charities go up from the current 15 percent to 75 percent, which is the same rate given to political donors.
In 2016, the House of Commons, under Trudeau, flat-out rejected Conservative MP Ted Falk’s Bill C-239, An Act To Amend The Income Tax Act that would have raised the basic charitable tax credit from 15 to 75 percent.
Falk noted a the time that “the bill would incur a cost for our government,” adding, “there would be a dip in revenue. However, what would cost even more and what we cannot afford is a capability gap in our charities due to a lack of donations.”
Falk is a Christian and a member of the Mennonite Brethren Church of Steinbach, Manitoba. He recently told the House of Commons that Canada is a nation built on “God’s word.”
“God’s word reminds us freedom does not come from bureaucrats, global bodies or unelected elites,” he said.
“It comes from hard work, personal responsibility and the recognition of a higher authority. These words teach us that good government needs vision, justice and accountability to the people and to God.”
Attempts to go after pro-life religious groups’ tax charity status have been made by the former Trudeau government and are not being planned by the current government of PM Mark Carney.
Earlier this year, the Conservative Party released a petition blasting a recent finance committee recommendation supported by Carney that calls for pro-life and religious groups to have their charity tax status revoked.
Another recent Carney government Bill C-2, which looks to ban cash donations over $10,000 that would include religious charities, was blasted by a constitutional freedom group as a “step towards tyranny.”
