Finance committee  Thank you for the question. If I'm understanding correctly, the question is on how many foundations are impacted by these changes. To break it down as precisely as possible, there are about 11,000 foundations: 6,000 private foundations and about 5,000 public foundations. The changes that we've proposed here, which would be to increase the disbursement quota from 3.5% to 5% for assets over $1 million, would impact 4,000 foundations and other charities, but primarily foundations, because these are the organizations that report having assets above that.

Finance committee  Yes. The disbursement quota is based on the value of property not used in charitable programs or administration. Based on the value of what is effectively their investment property, we would require foundations to spend a minimum of 5% of that value on charitable programs or as gifts to other qualified donees, or grants—under the new regime—to other organizations that carry on charitable programs.

Finance committee  I would say, in terms of the proposal and what you see in Bill S-216, the aim is by and large the same, but we get there differently mechanically. You can find the prescribed conditions beginning on page 41 of the BIA in proposed section 3703. In terms of the enforcement of those provisions, what I can say is that the legislation is obviously proposed by the Department of Finance.

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. I'm not certain I understand correctly your point about a percentage or a ratio. I'll try to outline the differences between the two bills. Bill S-216, of course, is a Senate public bill that is currently before the House of Commons. It proposes effectively to allow registered charities to make grants to non-qualified donees, provided that the charity puts in place reasonable steps to assure their resources are used for charitable activities.

Finance committee  Thank you very much for the question. My name is Blaine Langdon. I'm the director of the charities section at the Department of Finance. The measure we're proposing here is effectively designed to facilitate the ability of charities to work in partnerships with others. To explain the existing rules, currently registered charities are able to use their own resources in one of two ways: either on their own charitable activities or as gifts to qualified donees.

Finance committee  When we looked into the issue of providing some mechanism to support Canadian journalism and what key things we wanted to ensure were supported, what we found in our research and was pointed out to us is the possibility of the loss of local news organizations, which for many people are the only sources of information about their communities, as well as the loss of coverage of Canadian news, which is important for the purposes of allowing Canadians to make decisions about things that are important to their lives.

Finance committee  The regime that Trevor is referring to applies to donations of certified Canadian cultural property. It's not designed this way for the purposes of independence; it's much more for the purposes of their expertise. When an individual is going to donate Canadian cultural property to a designated institution, such as a museum or a university, the desire is to have that cultural property qualify for certain enhanced tax incentives.

Finance committee  Again, it's unfortunate that we do not have further details for you because I think the answer to your question is dependent on the nature of the body that is set up. To the extent that it is a creature of statute—it is established as an independent something by statute—presumably, in that same statute, one would place recourse to a particular type of court or tribunal.

Finance committee  Absolutely. Perhaps I will say two things. One is that before my life at Finance, I worked for the Canada Revenue Agency. What I will say is that, certainly, although the Income Tax Act does refer to the Minister of National Revenue, that authority is delegated to the commissioner, who subdelegates it down to the officials level.

Finance committee  Absolutely. In the design of the measures to date, we have been heavily involved in consulting with the journalism sector. Although it has not been established or announced yet, the budget does, again, refer to the fact that the advisory panel will be selected from members of the journalism industry.

Finance committee  Just to clarify, and not being overly familiar with The Post Millennial, one thing I would pick up is that, at least in terms of the qualified Canadian journalism organization definition, I think it carries through all measures. It doesn't have to be a physical print copy. It focuses in on written news content, so an organization that is perhaps entirely web based—and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong—but produces written articles and original news content would qualify.

Finance committee  I think that would be included. I think the purpose behind the measures is to ensure the continued availability of news and information of general interest to the Canadian public. Again, we did seek to ensure that organizations or publications with a narrow focus on a specific subject would be excluded, but, again, recognizing that we need to have the advice of the expert panel.

Finance committee  Absolutely.

Finance committee  I think we would look at it as casting the net as broadly as possible to capture organizations that are general news organizations. With your daily publications, notwithstanding the fact that they will cover industry-specific news, sports, recreation, arts, lifestyle or entertainment, their primary focus is the production of original news content.

Finance committee  In developing these measures, we did look to set in place some criteria that would help us distinguish between a journalism organization and an individual who might be, for example, writing a blog. That's why in terms of the definition of a qualified Canadian journalism organization, we did set out the requirement that the organization employ at least two journalists who are different from the owner.