In the midst of auto sector bailouts, forestry relief, banking assistance and stimulus spending on roads, bridges and other buildings, it's easy to forget about the economic importance of the non-profit sector. Yet it is a $112 billion industry employing 2.1 million Canadians and comprises 8.6 per cent of the nation's GDP. Its health is a matter of national interest and would be considerably enhanced through a simple increase of the charitable tax credit for individual donations over $200 from the present 29 per cent to Cardus's proposed 42 per cent. What gets rewarded, after all, is what gets done and while bricks, mortar, timber, roads and metal are all important, nothing is as vital to a nation in the long run as its social architecture. Imagine Canada, representing dozens of charities across Canada, recommended three broad themes in its May 2008 position papers. These included "Tax Incentives to Stimulate Giving" and concluded that tax incentives are an important stimulus for giving. While the results (and consequently the exact costs) of this tax reduction measure are difficult to project, we know that charitable donations in British Columbia increased by five per cent in three years following an increase in the charitable donation credit. In the state of Arizona, a combination of tax credit and tax deduction in certain sectors saw charitable contributions triple in three years. That charities need and deserve help in these troubled times is a point few would dispute. In mid December, it was reported that the Salvation Army's donations were down 30 per cent. Even as challenging times place a greater demand on their services, many charities are struggling to pay the bills. Of Canada's 161,000 charities and non-profits, two-thirds report annual revenues of less than $100,000. Yet, they all combine to provide services, many of them essential, which enrich the social, physical, and spiritual lives of Canadians. And, if and when charities can no longer attend to those among us who need their services, the burden of their care falls to governments, typically at higher costs in the long term. Some large charities urged Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to exempt charitable gifts of private company shares and real estate donated to charity from capital gains taxes. The benefits of that approach will primarily advantage large charities and large donors. The benefits of changing the tax credit, on the other hand, are most likely to be experienced by charities across the board. It also provides encouragement to many more of the 25 per cent of Canadian taxpayers who in combination contribute $8.5 billion (2006 data) annually to charities. A consensus has emerged among political leaders of all parties that economic stimulus is a current necessity. There are many more ideas being proposed than can be responsibly implemented, so there is an onus on advocates to outline the return on investment that the taxpayer will receive. Without more detailed government data, it is impossible to accurately project the cost of foregone tax revenue for this proposal. Back of the envelope guesstimates suggest $400-$600 million is required, a reasonable amount placed in context of a $30-billion stimulus package. But this loss of federal revenue is not money lost to the economy. Increasing the charitable credit ensures continued and increased spending by charities and protects the treasury from increased demands on social programs. There is no reason to fear additional support to this component of society will go to fatten executive bonuses or be frittered away on chartered jets, after all. People support different charities, depending on their religious, cultural, or aesthetic appetites. That diversity is also the strength of this approach as giving reflects our commitments to organizations that relieve poverty, promote education and advance faith-based or other benevolent motivations. A strong charitable sector including universities, hospitals and hospices, arts and sports groups, poverty and publishing programs, synagogues and churches, provides ways for Canadians to be their best and show compassion to the least. Charities are not vehicles for greed, excess, or profit. They are the products of our generosity, kindness and creativity-- vital components of a healthy society without which financial economies cannot thrive. This forthcoming budget is an opportunity for all sectors to reconsider their fundamentals. It would be a shame if we went through this collective exercise as a country and neglected those important organizations whose very existence defines and gives expression to who we are.

On January 15 Cardus released a backgrounder paper on its recommendation to increase charitable tax credits in the 2009 federal budget. "This proposal provides incentive to ordinary taxpayers to support causes which reflect their passions and priorities, and produces a diversity of social institutions enriching the lives of Canadians," said Ray Pennings, Director of Research at Cardus. "This is good economic policy, and this is good social policy. It provides short-term economic stimulus and long-term benefits." Read the backgrounder and enter the pre-budget debate today. View it online here or download it now.

HAMILTON, January 15, 2009—Cardus, a think tank dedicated to the renewal of Canada's social architecture, is recommending that the federal government increase charitable tax credits from 29% to 42% as part of its stimulus package (Click here for News Wire Release). "Adopting this proposal will be a sound investment in Canada's social architecture," said Ray Pennings, Cardus' Director of Research. "The charitable sector is critical to the rich fabric of Canadian society, and provides taxpayers exceptional return on investment." Canada's 161,000 charities and not-for-profits (NFP) employ over 2.1 million Canadians and provide 8.6% of Canada's GDP. The services they provide—many of them essential—impact the physical, social, and spiritual lives of virtually every Canadian. Although approximately one third of the $112 billion in the NFP sector is spent by hospitals, universities, and colleges, more than half of the total funding in this sector comes from non-taxpayer sources. In 2006, more than 25% of Canadian taxpayers claimed charitable contributions totalling $8.5 billion. "The not-for-profit sector is struggling in these difficult economic times, even as their services are needed even more," said Pennings. The proposal by Cardus argues that given charities' success in providing social services, there are compelling arguments to be made for increasing the charitable tax credit as an effective economic stimulus. Every dollar forgone by the taxpayer is leveraged with more dollars spent in the economy by charitable organizations. There is inadequate public data available to accurately project the cost of the proposal, however Pennings indicated that his best "back of the envelope guesstimate" based on current donation levels is between $400 and $600 million. "This proposal provides incentive to ordinary taxpayers to support causes which reflect their passions and priorities, and produces a diversity of social institutions enriching the lives of Canadians," said Pennings. "This is good economic policy, and this is good social policy. It provides short-term economic stimulus and long-term benefits." Cardus is a North American public policy think tank, equipping change agents with best theories and practices of public life to renew North American social architecture. Cardus launched in October 2008 to expand on the work of its precursor, the Work Research Foundation. It has an annual operating budget of approximately $1 million and is a registered charity. -30- Media Contact: Ray Pennings (403)479-4590 rpennings@cardus.ca A copy of the proposal and background paper is available at http://go.cardus.ca/budget. See official News Wire Release

My grandfather George Jones of Harrington, PEI, and Rouleau, Sask., was the first to tell me about how, even at the heights of the Great War, the killing would stop for Christmas. I can no longer recall all of his exact words, but the phrase 'the German boys' was never spoken in the tone you would expect from a man who spent part of his youth avoiding death at their hands and who had taken one of their bullets in his thigh. He would only tell us happy stories about learning to speak French with pretty girls and how at Christmas the artillery and the sniper fire fell silent and you could hear 'the German boys' entrenched nearby singing carols in their language. The Canadian boys would sing back in theirs. When Christmas was over and the next day dawned, the slaughter would resume. You can, if you wish, decide that this is the height of hypocrisy. It is intellectually and morally bizarre after all that people could mutually understand that the day which celebrates the birth of Jesus was too holy for killing but that the next day and one before were not. I doubt that thought was lost on 'the boys' in the trenches. An alternative view, perhaps more hopeful, was put forward in the early 20th century by novelist and journalist G.K. Chesterton when he said 'Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult, and not tried.' No matter one's take, Christmas was a cultural symbol powerful enough to make people in the midst of an all out war the likes of which the world had never seen lay down their weapons at the behest of 2,000-year-old words attributed to an angel: 'Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.' Almost 100 years later, the most noticeable feature of Christmas Day remains the unique nature of its quiet. It is very clearly not the calm of Labour Day or Thanksgiving. Canada Day is really not quiet at all, but everything stops at Christmas; its quiet is as metaphysical as it is auditory. It is as if we are meant to be still and know something. When I was small and only people in emergency and vital public services had to work on Sundays, before we were 'free' - we were more used to quiet, more 'stillness.' It gave us time and it gave us space. At night it was dark and even in most cities we could see the stars and wonder or tremble depending on our predispositions. In the day, we did not have to peer through the yellow soup of smog to see the sun. Most of our lives now are dominated by noises of which we are no longer even concious - the whir of computers, the roar of 'white noise' that you can only hear when it stops: at Christmas. Few are so hideous as the battles my grandfather's and father's generations fought and are played out today by my children's generation in Afghanistan, but we are all fighting battles. Some are for power or for the ascendancy of our ideas. Some are for financial survival. Some are for emotional contentment. Some are fighting to mend that which within and around us is broken and, try as we might, we just can't seem to put back together again. Some of us are fighting to get what we want and believe it is actually what we need. Some of us are fighting just to hold back the tears. For Christians, Christmas is the alpha of the alpha, the moment when the Greek 'logos', the source of the principle governing the cosmos and human reasoning, became flesh and brought the promise of light and redemption. For others, it may have evolved to be about the generosity of sharing gifts as expressions of love with family and friends. All of these are socially virtuous activities that enhance our culture through a shared sense of the need to call a truce, even if for just one day each year, and acknowledge a shared appreciation for peace, for hope and for goodwill. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, Christmas is, if false, of no importance. If true, it is of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. We should make sure we treat it that way.

Journal of Commerce covers Senior Fellow Ray Pennings' speech at the Economic Club on construction in Ontario. Read the coverage here, and contribute to the emerging conversation on provincial competitive labour pools.

When you think about it, it's really all about rodeo, ridin, ropin, hangin in there, and toughin it out. Few events better illustrate the challenges evolving for our sense of shared culture as we transition into urbanity and away from values based in our rural roots. Calgary contains 1.1 million people, close to twice as many as were living within its boundaries a generation ago. Its bold new Centre City plan calls for a complete overhaul of its planning ambitions and for the importation of between 40,000 and 50,000 people over the next 20 years into its downtown core. The aim is environmental, cultural and infrastructure sustainability. To put this in perspective, the plan intends to convert a sprawling, horizontal city into one that is more vertical and with downtown density levels that will rival those in Manhattan. Demographically, its need for talent and labour has traditionally drawn people from across the country. However, as the impact of the baby boom's low level of reproduction become more evident in society and as other venues such as Saskatchewan and British Columbia become more competitive in terms of the net income and lifestyle they can offer, this too is changing. Statistics Canada trends in the past year show that while Alberta's population growth continues to be robust, it is at the moment entirely dependent upon immigration for that growth and is beginning to experience something rarely seen in its past, negative interprovincial migration. In other words, more native-born Canadians are leaving Alberta than are coming to it. This will have an impact on the city. Its look and its feel will evolve in a new direction although provided the promise it offers to ambitious newcomers is fulfilled there's no reason to think that the essence of its entrepreneurial energy will change. Suffice to say that is not the case in small town and rural Alberta or, for instance, large parts of the Maritimes. There, society looks much as it did 25 years ago. Population levels are relatively stable, stagnant is another way of looking at it, and opportunities for young people locally are less robust. This means that every year a certain number of people are drawn away by the jobs and excitement of the big cities and also that, due to the relative lack of opportunity, immigrants and their cultural influences are going to be less evident in these communities. The end result is that while 25 years ago cities such as Calgary were typically informed by the same set of cultural influences as were found in the rural and small-town communities that surrounded it, the same is not the case today and based on current trends will continue to be more and more disparate in the years ahead. Similar trends can be found in Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver and other cities. This need not be a bad thing. But it is a thing. This brings us again to rodeo and its efforts to adapt its sport,“ professional and otherwise, to the emerging sensibilities of urban culture and how it views animals. Calf roping is now, for instance, termed tie-down roping and, even more significantly, it and steer wrestling was completely eliminated this past year from the events at the Cloverdale Rodeo in B.C. This followed an incident the previous year in which a calf was put down after its leg was broken. People who live in urban areas tend to view animals through the lens of their experience with them and that is primarily as pets. When one dies, it is a tragedy. People from rural cultures are also fond and sensitive to the humane treatment of animals but naturally view them through the lens of their experience, which is primarily as livestock and beasts of burden. In the rural experience, animals die all the time; the event is neither rare nor does it evoke the same sense of tragedy. Simply, it is nature. Maintaining a common language that can bridge the gap between urban and rural Canada will be a new and greater challenge than at any time in our past.

Daily Commercial News - the industry daily "must read" - covers Senior Fellow Ray Pennings' speech at the Economic Club. Read the coverage here, and contribute to the emerging conversation on provincial competitive labour pools.

Imagine it is 1978, the year Ontario's current construction labour framework was passed into law. You are an investor intending to build a major project such as a factory or power plant. No matter where you choose to invest in Canada, the only workforce that has the skills and capacity to complete your project is the one organized by the craft unions affiliated with the various provincial Building and Construction Trades Councils. You could receive competitive bids for your project, but all of those bids will be based on the same labour agreement, negotiated between employers as a group and their unions. It's a complicated and messy history but if we fast-forward 30 years, that situation has changed dramatically. In British Columbia and Alberta (and to some extent other provinces), major projects are receiving bids from open-shop non-union contractors, alternative unions and the traditional craft unions. There are no known studies that measure the correlation between these competitive labour pool environments and the comparative economic prosperity enjoyed by those provinces in recent years, but anecdotal evidence and logic both suggest a strong link between competitive bidding and broad economic success. Ironically, while all this was going on, Ontario was heading in the opposite direction. Working agreements among municipalities, school boards and many corporate investors prevented contractors without labour agreements with craft unions from even bidding on projects. Those provinces with competitive labour pools are thriving. Ontario, where competition is suppressed, is now a 'have-not' province almost completely out of step with the country's fastest-growing provinces when it comes to the organization of construction labour. This tale of two economic directions took place due to changes in labour law, at least in part. But a closer examination shows legislative change actually followed competitive innovation rather than led it. The non-union sector in the more advanced provinces organized itself aggressively to provide union-type services such as hiring hall banks, group benefits and portability of benefits between employers. Various unions, including the International Wood and Allied Workers of Canada (IWA), Communication Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) and even the Labourers and Carpenters Unions began using the industrial model (all crafts in a single union). The Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC) combined this industrial or 'wall-to-wall' model with a 'partnership philosophy' and has seen significant growth in the past decade, particularly in Alberta and B.C. The significance of these developments is that the entire context for organizing construction labour relations has changed in most provinces. Whereas adversarial labour tactics that leveraged short-term opportunities (even to the detriment of the long-term stability of the industry) were once the norm, most craft unions in competitive markets now tend to focus on longer-term strategies. Defenders of the closed model are quick to suggest that the shift to labour pool competition amounted to implementation of an ideological anti-union agenda that has put the burden on the backs of workers. While the motives of some has undoubtedly fit that characterization, the fact remains that in order to develop a labour pool with the skills and capacity to construct major projects (skills that are limited in supply and consequently attract a significant market price), construction workers need to be well-compensated or they will go to the competition. The reality today is that while each pool has a core of workers that are ideologically committed to the pro- or anti-union philosophies that characterize their organizations, many workers freely move among the craft union, industrial union and non-union models of organization and take the available jobs that best suit their circumstances. Ontario, by contrast, continues with a model that effectively guarantees that the only available work forces with the skills to complete major projects are those organized by the craft unions. Without the competitive pressures of the alternative models, there is very little if any of the inspiration required to spur innovation, without which economies sputter and fail. Ontario is now proceeding with significant infrastructure investments, particularly in power generation, and it is high time the province assessed its competitive position in the country. A 'competitive labour pool' model similar to those in effect in Alberta and British Columbia creates fewer jurisdictional disputes, promotes local efficiency and encourages innovation on a macro level. It's proven to be an environment in which unions not only survive but thrive while helping ensure the long-term health of the industries that keep their members employed. Understanding and building on the value added by everyone at the table is essential for Ontario's economic future. Discussion of this deserving topic is overdue, if anyone has sufficient courage to break the awkward and uneconomic silence. Financial Post    Ray Pennings, Director of Research for Cardus, a Hamilton-based think tank, will be addressing Ontario's constructions costs before the Economic Club of Toronto on Wednesday.

STAMPEDE! The Rise of the West and Canada's New Power Elite By Gordon Pitts Key Porter, 360 pages, $34.95 Calgary oilman Jim Gray remembers exactly when the nightmare of the National Energy Program began. "October 28, 1980, at 4 p.m.," he tells author and Globe and Mail business writer Gordon Pitts, is the moment that, for better or worse, still haunts the soul of Alberta. Combined with a bursting market bubble, the NEP destroyed the blue-eyed sheiks of the Peter Lougheed era and threw tens of thousands from their jobs and homes. The survivors were forced to watch as the state-owned Petro Canada buildings rose to be Calgary's tallest structures. The company has long since been privatized and its reputation rehabilitated, but most who were here in the 1980s still recall when its towers were known as the Kremlin, their base as Red Square. Gray's quote is appropriately placed near the heart of Stampede! because, as Pitts makes clear, the moment is central to modern Alberta's story of devastation, reconstruction and, perhaps, redemption. Refreshingly, Pitts doesn't dwell on past resentments and sets an optimistic tone about the future of the West, pleading responsibly for an end to regional squabbling. Better than anyone to date, he efficiently articulates the class struggle between Central Canada's historic derision of the vulgar world of resources (how smart do you have to be to dig things out of the ground?) and the West's equally rugged contempt for business cultures of inheritance and entitlement (how hard do you have to work to inherit daddy's money?). It is a balanced overview of the forces and people behind the steady shift west of Canada's power base and its inevitable acceptance of itself as a resource superpower. Pitts asks the reader to imagine a 2020 world in which the TD is now the Calgary-Dominion bank, the Calgary Flames have won four straight Stanley Cups, the Alberta Heritage Fund is worth $100-billion, Quebec is irrelevant, the University of Alberta has recruited a third Nobel Prize winner, the nation's last auto plant has closed and Newfoundland and Labrador is an independent nation. But it is all too much of a tease for what follows. Part I is a series of compelling vignettes that form the foundations of the argument that Pitts's Canada of 2020 is within the realm of possibility. The author's journalistic skills are effectively used to outline the brute force of the oil-sands megaproject, the demise of manufacturing, the slow but elegant decline of Montreal from business centre to cultural playhouse, Newfoundland's hardscrabble destiny and the memories and myths that inform the Great Canadian Whole. Part II introduces Canada to its new bosses and, again, the parts are fine, although this is where some of Pitts's points, like Canada's regions, begin to argue with one another. The reader, for instance, is never certain whether Pitts considers Alberta's entrepreneurial inclinations mythical, in the sense of overblown nonsense, or proved legend. Some will quibble with individual characterizations (Gwyn Morgan, for instance, as a social conservative?) and argue that Stampede! would have been enriched with a morsel more of the Doug Mitchell crowd and the Tom Flanagan-style public policy players, and a tad less of the Murray Edwards types, perilous as it can be to underestimate the latter's influence. Few will argue, though, with the rehabilitation of Fred Woods, the Midnight Oil executive who became a poster boy for the nouveau riche when the plans for his $10-million home became public. Nor will many object to the inclusion of the story of the Harvie family's sale/donation of 1,700 hectares of their ranchland in order to preserve it as a park standing permanently in the path of suburban development. Part III is where one expects Pitts to pull this book together and prove his vision of Canada in 2020. Inexplicably, Stampede! bucks the reader off with even more vignettes and what appears to be a late addendum on foreign investment. All of the foundation laid in the preceding 330 pages is ground into a mere 11 pages of summary, which allows the original thesis of an Ontario in decline, an irrelevant Quebec and an independent Newfoundland to vanish. Pitts tells us what might happen, and why it might happen, but we never find out how it might happen. There are some valuable yet truncated points, for instance, about high-speed rail linking "Edgary" and about an endowment fund for the arts. Pitts's desire for Albertans to "get over it" when it comes to the NEP is not unfamiliar. Certainly life is more fun when you don't constantly have to shoulder-check for the next sucker punch, but Pitts's forecast of the death of the Ontario auto industry in tandem with the rise of powerful commodity-based provinces seems to argue against the need for the West to drop its guard. Pitts needed to take us further down that dark alley in order to convince us we will all get through it without mugging each other. Stampede! fails to become the book it might have been, but it remains a compelling read for people serious about Canada and the welcome revelation that the West is not a threat - it is a promise. Peter Menzies is a senior fellow with Cardus and former editor-in-chief and publisher of the Calgary Herald.