A new way to attack environmental groups

The Harper government hasn’t tried to hide its dislike for environmental groups. That became plainly obvious in 2012, when the federal budget created a special fund to target groups with charitable status to determine if they engaged in too much political activity.

Environmental groups discovered what the budget announcement meant: auditors from Canada Revenue Agency were all over them.

The audit program has been a bit of a bust. One group (a non-green org) has lost its charitable status. (The current law includes a 10 percent rule, meaning groups can do political advocacy work, including denouncing or supporting government policy, up to 10 percent of their time.) 

It looks like a riding association in Edmonton has a solution, and the group wants the party to get behind the idea at the party’s convention.

The “government must review the laws governing charities in Canada with a view to tightening the rules on acceptable activity, the use of a registered charity number, disclosure requirements….”

Photo: vsellis. Used under a Creative Commons BY-SA 2.0 licence.