In December, a Parliamentary committee recommended Canada end automatic charitable status for religious groups, mirroring recommendations from the BC Humanist Association (BCHA).

In its report on Pre-Budget Consultations in Advance of the 2025 Budget, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance recommends the government (Recommendation 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.

Further, the Committee also recommends the government "No longer provide charitable status to anti-abortion organizations" (Recommendation 429). Both recommendations mirror submissions made by the BCHA in July.

Ian Bushfield, Executive Director, BCHA:

Canada's charity laws are among the most antiquated in the Commonwealth. As the country grows increasingly more diverse and secular, we're long overdue to revisit the assumption that religious groups are an inherent public good. We're delighted to see that the Members of the Finance Committee share this view.

Presently, any charity that "preach[es] and advance[s] the spiritual teachings of a religious faith" can qualify for charitable status in Canada. The CRA stipulates, "There must be an element of theistic worship, which means the worship of a deity or deities in the spiritual sense." These criteria date back to 17th-century English common law definitions of charitable purposes.

The government subsidizes charities by providing tax deductions for charitable donations. The BCHA, with the Centre for Inquiry Canada, estimated that the tax receipts issued by religious charities in Canada resulted in $1.6 to $2.6 billion in foregone revenue in 2017.

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The Government recently announced changes to require greater transparency from charities that provide reproductive health services to disclose if they do not refer for abortion or birth control services.

The Committee's report included 462 recommendations based on 828 submissions and 74 presentations by groups and individuals. NDP and Bloc Quebecois committee members presented concurring reports and the Conservatives wrote a dissenting report, though none mentioned the proposed changes to charitable status.