Part 4: Green gets mean with Ottawa

'We don't take it when we are bulldozed,' says Joe Foy, national campaign director for the Wilderness Committee, referring to the Harper government's plan to give tax authorities more power to question the political activities of charities.

Photograph by: Ward Perrin, PNG , Vancouver Sun

Green gets mean with Ottawa

Conservatives' proposed dilution of environmental laws, attacks on groups has created backlash

Fourth in a four-part series

By Gordon Hoekstra,

Vancouver Sun

June 8, 2012

Discord between the Tories and environmentalists began when the federal natural resources minister maligned environmental groups as radicals. It escalated with the introduction of Bill C-38, a package of new laws, some directly targeting charities and environmental protections.

Now it's war.

Environmental groups are fighting back after the Conservatives accused them of hijacking public decision making and using foreign funding to damage national economic interests. Their target is Bill C-38 which opponents say weakens fish habitat protection and strengthens the taxman's powers to question charities. The changes will bring more scrutiny to foreign funding for charities and also how they use money for political purposes. Charities will also have to take more responsibility for the political activities of groups to which they give money.

It will give bureaucrats new powers to suspend the charitable status of groups, a designation that helps organizations raise money by allowing them to issue receipts for tax deductions.

And Bill C-38 will give an extra $8 million to the Canada Revenue Agency for stepped-up audits of those groups.

Now that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a majority, his government will be able to push through the new laws before parliament breaks for the summer.

Environmental organizations that operate in B.C. are fearful of the changes, but not cowed.

Read more here