We continue to hear from many churches concerned about possible changes to charitable status. We haven’t seen any direct communications from the Finance Minister on the government’s plans, but there are MPs going on the record to indicate there are no plans to change charitable status for religious organizations.
The Finance Committee held
pre-budget consultations this past summer and received 948 written briefs, including from the
EFC. The EFC, along with many others, asked the committee to reject
last December’s recommendations to remove “advancement of religion” as a charitable purpose and to no longer provide charitable status to anti-abortion organizations. The Committee has not released a report or recommendations on its summer 2025 pre-budget study.
With the budget slated to be released on November 4, it seems unlikely the Finance Committee will have more hearings to hear from witnesses in person or have time to issue a substantive report. But the EFC is monitoring to see what the Committee recommends in a new pre-budget report, if one is issued before the budget.
While the EFC hasn’t yet received a reply to
our letter to the Finance Minister on the charitable status issues, we have heard some encouraging news related to one of the recommendations.
The office of Liberal MP Karina Gould, who is now chair of the Finance Committee, communicated with Al Postma, the Canadian Executive Director of the Christian Reformed Church, in late September (email text posted
here as a comment on Oct 7).
Here is an excerpt from the letter from MP Gould’s office:
“We reached out to the Department of Finance on your behalf - please see the Department’s comment on this matter below:
"Charitable status for religious organizations is not under review, and this government has no plans to change that. Any suggestion otherwise is false. We respect the role faith-based organizations play in communities across the county, and religious organizations continue to enjoy charitable status under the same rules that apply to all charities in Canada. There have been no policy or legislative changes proposed that would revoke charitable status from religious groups including churches.”
This is the clearest, on-the-record statement that we have seen indicating that the government is not undertaking background work to propose a change to charitable status and is not planning such a change. This aligns with what we’ve been hearing anecdotally from different sources, but it is reassuring to see an official source put it in writing. We are very encouraged by this confirmation.
We will continue to encourage the government to support the charitable sector and to introduce the good work of religious charities to MPs. We encourage others to do the same.
A greater understanding of the many benefits religious charities bring to their communities will make MPs less likely to support this kind of recommendation if it is ever brought forward again.
Just to note, this communication from the Department of Finance through MP Gould’s office does not address the Finance Committee’s other recommendation to “no longer provide charitable status to anti-abortion organizations.”
The previous government had announced
plans for legislation related to charities that offer pregnancy options counselling last year. This initiative died when Parliament was prorogued. It was not raised during the election and has not been mentioned in the new Parliament’s plans laid out in the Throne Speech or the Prime Minister’s mandate letter.
The EFC is concerned about the mischaracterization and targeting of pregnancy care centres and the politicization of charities. We have raised this in our submissions and letters to government.
The EFC continues to monitor these issues closely.
Related resources
- The EFC's sample communications (email, telephone and petition) to MPs on the charitable status of religious organizations at TheEFC.ca/Protect-Charitable
- The EFC's background and sample communications to MPs on the charitable status of pro-life organizations at TheEFC.ca/CharitableProLife
- The EFC's submission to the House of Commons Finance Committee's pre-budget consultation, August 2025
- The EFC's submission to the Department of Finance's pre-budget consultation, March 2025
- The EFC's update on the committee's troubling recommendations, why it matters and how you can respond (from December 2024)
- The EFC's letters to the Finance Minister about the committee recommendations (June 2025 and December 2024) and about the politicization of charitable status (November 2022).