Dear AFP Greater Vancouver Members,
Your Government Relations committee would like to share some highlights from both the federal and provincial budgets announced earlier this week. Unsurprisingly, the budgets focus on outlining how Canada and British Columbia will finish the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and begin the road to economic recovery.
Direct impacts on our sector:
The federal budget provides greater direct support for our sector compared to the BC budget, though both contain measures to support the important work of our organizations.
- Federal: $400M Community Services Recovery Fund which will directly aid our industry and provide core operating supporting funding.
- Federal: Public consultations regarding a potential increase of the disbursement quota required of charitable foundations. The government forecasts that this could potentially lead to an additional $1B – $2B being infused in our sector.
- Federal: Plans to advance several measures related to empowering the CRA when it comes to oversight of charities with a primary focus on combatting terrorism and fraud within the sector.
- Provincial: Commitment of roughly 25% of the BC Lottery Corporation’s gaming income to support its Community Gaming Grants.
- Net income from gaming saw a significant decline last year, dropping to $383M in 2020/21.
- The province forecasts net income will return to pre-pandemic levels of $1.4B by 2023/24.
Impact on the Arts, Culture, Tourism and Sports:
We recognize that some of our members work in sectors that have been even more heavily impacted by the pandemic compared to others and wanted to highlight specific supports for your sub-sectors.
- Federal: $1B commitment over three years to support tourism, arts and culture.
- $200M for major festivals, managed by regional development agencies.
- $200M for local festivals, managed by Canadian Heritage.
- $500M for local tourism, managed by regional development agencies.
- Federal: $300M commitment over two years to create the Recovery Fund for Heritage, Arts, Culture, Heritage and Sport Sectors.
- Federal: $50M commitment over three years to support performing arts and community events, administered by Canadian Heritage.
- Federal: $70M commitment over three years, including $50M immediately to support the Canada Music Fund. This will provide funding for musicians and live music venues.
- Provincial: $120M earmarked towards supporting tourism, arts and culture. This funding was previously announced in Fall 2020 and remains ongoing.
- Includes a onetime grant of $45K for those in the Tourism sector and $30K for all others.
- The province is including support for anchor attractions throughout the province.
- Provincial: A commitment of $6M over three years to the Arts Infrastructure Program, which will provide grants of up to $250K to support major capital projects.
For Managers:
Both the federal and provincial government remain committed to supporting employers as we near the end of the pandemic and look towards kickstarting our economic recovery. Many of our organizations will remain eligible for the following supports.
- Federal: Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy and Lockdown Support (CERB) until September 2021.
- Federal: $600M to launch the Canada Recovery Hiring Program, which will provide employers with $1,129 per week for employees hired between June 6, 2021 and November 20, 2021.
- Federal: a $370M investment in the Canada Summer Jobs which will provide a 100% wage subsidy for youth employed in our sector.
- Provincial: $150M to support the Increased Employment Incentive. This will provide a one-time tax credit for eligible employers.
Other Items of Note:
The following items may not directly impact our sector, but are important programs to support some of those most vulnerable or marginalized in our communities.
- Federal: National Childcare Program
- Childcare is being recognized by both the federal and provincial government as a vehicle to kickstart our economic recovery.
- Quebec saw a 1.7% increase in its GDP after it created a provincial childcare program.
- $30B over five years to create a national childcare program with an eventual goal of $10/day childcare by 2025/26.
- While all Canadians will benefit, this program will especially benefit women, who make up most of the employees in our sector.
- It will be interesting to see if this program, aimed at accelerating our economy will also accelerate the rate at which women donate to non-profits.
- Provincial: A doubling of its $10-a-day program childcare spaces over the next three years. Total spaces will increase to 3,750.
- Federal: $300M commitment to support Black communities.
- $200M to support the creation of a new Black-led Philanthropic Endowment Fund, which will directly combat anti-Black racism and improve economic outcomes in Black communities.
- $100M to create Supporting Black Canadian Communities Initiatives, which will support capacity building in the community including Black-led non-profits.
- This is a significant commitment from the federal government as a recent study Unfunded: Black Communities are Overlooked by Canadian Philanthropy showed that black charities receive only seven cents for every $100 donated to major charities.
- Federal: A $172M commitment over five years to support Statistics Canada implementing a Disaggregated Data Action Plan.
- This will help the government fill data and knowledge gaps and allow it to make better and more equal decisions regarding all Canadians.
- This is also an area of advocacy for AFP Canada, as one of our key policy priorities is comprehensive data collection by Statistics Canada on our sector. Our national colleagues will hopefully be able to share more about this in the coming months.
Overall, we can see that there are many great initiatives on both a federal and provincial level that will help our sector continue its recovery and emerge stronger than ever from this pandemic. While the federal government did not commit to incentivizing donations which was one of the three recommendations from the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, their budget does include much needed direct stimulus for our sector. AFP Canada will continue to work with our partners to advocate for all members and the industry on a federal level. Locally, we will continue to engage with Ms. Niki Sharma, BC’s Parliamentary Secretary for Community Development and Non-profits to ensure that our sector remains heard and supported.
Thank you for your continued support of AFP Greater Vancouver and for the incredible work you do to fill needs in our neighbourhoods, communities, cities and our province.