Concerns raised about the possibility of Federal Government eliminating charitable status for religious groups

BY PAUL JUNOR

The charitable status of religious groups has been accepted by Canadians for many years. There has not been much thought given to the possibility of this special privilege being taken away until the current federal Liberal government. There have been several Christian denominations which have expressed concerns regarding two recommendations that arose from the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, “Report 21: Pre-Budget Consultation in Advance of the 2025 Budget,” which was released in December 2024. Many view these recommendations as troubling.

The two recommendations were listed as Recommendations 429 and 430. These recommendations state:

• No longer provide charitable status to anti-abortion organizations
• Amend the income tax to provide a definition of a charity, which removes the privileged status of advancement of religion as a charitable purpose

In an article by Lee Harding on March 28^th, 2025, for The Niagara Independent titled, “Canada’s sleeper election issue: the loss of charitable status for religious organizations. It reveals that many religious charities were shocked by the recommendations. There were no consultations with any of the over 34,000 religious charities that make up the 85,600 charities in Canada, or reasons given to them.

“If adopted this would mean that religious organizations, including many churches and ministry organizations could lose charitable status.”

The British Columbia Humanist Association (BCHA) played an integral role in the promotion of both recommendations. It alleged that charitable status for religious worship was discriminatory, so $1.6 billion to $2.6 billion of annual tax breaks for religious institutions and their donations should stay in government coffers.

The House of Commons Standing Committee consists of these members:

• 6 Liberal MPS
• 4 Conservatives
• 1 Bloc Quebecois
• 7 NDP

The Conservative Party of Canada opposed the two recommendations and launched a petition titled, “Protecting the Charitable Status of Religious Organizations.” The petition states, “We the undersigned call on the Canadian government to reject the absurd mean-spirited attack on religious organizations.”

Charles McVety, President of Canada Christian College (CCC) posted a critical election question on his Facebook page. The question was, “Will your Member of Parliament support the finance committee published recommendations 430 (remove the privileged status of advancement of religion as a charitable purpose) that may result in: mosques, synagogues, temples and churches losing their charitable status?”

There have been several responses from various religious media outlets. Christianity Today posted an article, “Canadian Government Considers Changing Churches,” on January 21^st, 2025.The article mentioned that Canadian churches were surprised by this formal recommendation from the Finance Committee. Also, the Catholic Register mentioned in an article on March 5^th, 2025, titled “Church Charities future depends on next election.” In addition, the Vatican News wrote an article on March 15^th, 2025, titled, “Churches in Canada concerned by proposed changes to their charitable status.”

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) have highlighted their concerns. As early as February 10^th, 2025, they wrote about “Churches and Charitable Status.” The article mentions that, “If adopted this would mean that religious organizations, including many churches and ministry organizations could lose charitable status.” The EFC has called on Canadians to “Ask your MP to support charitable status.”

REFERENCES:

https://www.ourcommons.ca/content/Committee/441/FINA/

http://www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/

http://www.vaticannews.ca/

https://www.catholicregister.on/

http://christianitytoday.ca/

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