A legal charity is preparing a strategy to preserve the tax-exempt status of religious congregations, warning the potential for its loss still looms.On January 6, Parliament’s Finance Committee published a long list of recommendations, including 430: “Amend the Income Tax Act to provide a definition of a charity which would remove the privileged status of ‘advancement of religion’ as a charitable purpose.”At a recent event hosted by the Regina Civic Awareness and Action Network, Randy Crosson, director of Freedoms Advocate, said that the Liberal government has been coy on whether they will follow through on this advice.“They're just avoiding the question. Personally, I think they're just trying to see what the Church is going to do. It's a shot across the bow. What are they going to do? Will they do anything?” Crosson said.Crosson said the Liberals might perceive “political points” in undermining religion, given narratives around residential schools, and the anti-religious climate in Quebec. However, he views this tactic as a short-sighted way to address mounting federal debts.“The average Canadian is completely unaware of what goes on in church and the benefit that it provides,” Crosson said..A 2024 study by the Canadian think tank Cardus found that religious congregations had a socio-economic benefit of $18.2 billion, far in excess of the $1.7 billion in tax exemptions it received. This “halo effect” was ten times greater than the tax exemptions, suggesting that if a loss in tax exempt status lowered donations by more than ten percent, society would suffer a net loss.Crosson said, “We know full well that if the government pulls that.. charitable status for this and those things decline, they're not going to come in and fill up what's left over, right? They won't start helping and feeding the poor. All those sorts of things aren't going to happen.”Although Freedoms Advocate claims a 90% success rate in past court cases, Crosson would prefer not to mount a legal challenge against this tax change. He said its potential for victory is uncertain and the effort would be “tremendously expensive.”Instead, Crosson wants to draft an open letter to the government and media outlining the benefits that congregations provide and why they are worthy of charitable status. He is reaching out to Christian leaders to rally as many signatures as possible.“If we could get a million people on this, it would add some real teeth,” Crosson said..Crosson also wants to leverage the signature drive to get real-life stories about how congregations are impacting their communities. Ideally, the open letter would lead to a documentary.“We're bringing together a group of pastors and leaders, ministry leaders, to help us define what the church does across the country,” Crosson explained. “We want real, solid, hard, core information. This is what the Church is doing.”Freedoms Advocate’s religious freedom webpage includes an email sign-up option so people can be notified when the open letter is ready to be signed.“It creates an unprecedented witness about what this is, what the church does for society in this country, and would be based on solid fact,” Crosson said.Crosson played a Freedoms Advocate video designed for churches that lays out the potential consequences of the loss of a tax exemption.“This isn't just about donors losing tax receipts. It's about churches losing buildings, staff losing jobs, and ministries being forced to shut down due to reduced donations. This is a direct threat to the future of faith in Canada, and it's happening fast,” Crosson said.Crosson, a resident of Airdrie, Alberta, grew up in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan. He spent more than a decade as Director of Operation Christmas Child at Samaritans Purse Canada.The federal budget will be delivered November 4.
