charities and advocacy
Advocacy to improve policy for the public good is a central component of the work of Canadian charities. From poverty reduction to environmental protection, solutions to systemic challenges inevitably require policy change. Charities must actively engage in processes that develop and strengthen public policy – and facilitate public participation in these processes – in order to effect meaningful change.
As long as a charity’s public policy dialogue and development activities further its charitable purpose, the Canadian Income Tax Act, as amended in 2018, places no limit on these advocacy activities.
But this wasn’t always the case. For many years, charities across the country faced an “advocacy chill.” In 2003, a federal policy statement limited charities’ political activities to no more than 10 per cent of their time and resources. In 2012, with increased resources to enforce this “10 per cent rule,” the Canada Revenue Agency undertook a series of well-publicized political-activity audits on dozens of Canadian charities. With these special audits stretching over multiple years and costing charities hundreds of thousands of dollars, the sector understandably backed away from advocacy activity, undertaking this work only with extreme caution – if not outright fear.
Today, charities across the country have Canada Without Poverty (CWP), an Ottawa organization, to thank for our current freedom to advocate. Under a political-activity audit for upwards of four years, in 2016 CWP launched a legal challenge, arguing that the Income Tax Act’s limitation on political activities violated freedom of expression, as enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In July 2018, the Ontario Superior Court of Canada agreed with CWP, finding that the Income Tax Act’s 10 per cent rule violated the Charter. In December 2018, the federal government amended the Income Tax Act accordingly. While all partisan activities remain prohibited, Canadian charities can now undertake unlimited public policy dialogue and development activities to advance their charitable purpose.
LWF’s charitable purpose, provided as part of our charitable registration in 2005, is to “advance education and benefit the community by carrying out research, educating the public about protection of the environment, and working to preserve and protect Lake Winnipeg and the surrounding area as a renewable resource.” Alongside our members, we proudly advocate all levels of government for evidence-based policy that advances this purpose and contributes to the greater public good.