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LEGACY IN ACTION
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Director Sheila Campbell. As the region’s
premier conservation land trust, the EALT
benefits greatly from securities-based donations
to support its work in acquiring and stewarding
natural areas in and around the metro region.
Those concerns are shared by granting bodies
like Edmonton Community Foundation (ECF),
that holds endowment funds supporting EALT.
ECF receives a significant portion of its support
from securities-based donations.
“The implications of these proposed changes
on Edmonton’s charitable sector as a whole is
concerning,” says ECF Counsel and Philanthropy
Advisor, Kathy Hawkesworth. “Currently the
Foundation stewards more than 1,600 funds and
close to 25 per cent of the donations it receives
are from publicly traded securities. From 2020
through 2023, ECF received approximately $35.8
million through these types of gifts.”
“If the proposed changes to the AMT
are adopted, our communities will feel the
impact, not just now but for years to come,”
Hawkesworth adds.
Philanthropists like Marg Reine — who was
one of the founding members of the EALT and
helped establish the EALT Russell/Reine Family
Conservation Fund through ECF in 2011 — are
also concerned that too much focus is being put
on government revenues and not the long-term
impacts on charitable services.
“The funding that’s being given by the
supposed ‘ultra rich’ are supporting social
programs, literacy programs, grants for
Indigenous communities, education and
other social issues,” Reine says. “Should these
donations start falling off, then it’s not just the
donors that are affected, but all those charities
as well. And over three or four years, you’ll
really start to notice the difference.”
According to Imagine Canada, the nonprofit
sector contributes more than $190 billion to
the Canadian economy (8.3 per cent of the
country’s GDP) and employes over 2 million
people. In every city, many of the core services
— whether it’s social services or education or
arts and culture — are provided through the
nonprofit sector.
Campbell and Reine are not alone in
expressing their concerns, with many charities
lobbying the federal government to reconsider
the proposal.
“I don’t think there was any intent by
the federal government to negatively impact
the charitable sector, but, because they
didn’t consult with anybody to get a good
understanding of what the impact would be,
all these charities across the country had to
mobilize and advocate to stop it,” says ECF CEO
Tina Thomas, who was among the leaders who
spoke to MPs on Nonprofit Hill Day in Ottawa
this past September.
Thomas notes that a lack of representation
and consultation with the nonprofit sector in
government leads to another issue.
“Because the charitable sector doesn’t have
a seat at the table, we are forced to divert time
and resources away from the work we were set
up to do,” she says. “Instead of focusing on our
community work, we are using resources to rally
and advocate instead.”
“The implications of these proposed
changes on Edmonton’s charitable
sector as a whole is concerning.”
— Kathy Hawkesworth