The Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada came out yesterday to criticize the Conservatives on their tax credit propo…. nevermind. It doesn’t reallly matter what they said. We’re going to look at where this group receives funding for their forays into political campaigns and lobbying efforts with the Federal Government.
That would be… the Federal Government!
Spring 2005 Bulletin;
Just approved: a three-year project grant from Status of Women Canada for Building Women’s Equality in Child Care Policy. The project is about developing child care policy responsive to the equality needs of women, at the same time as it meets the needs of children, families and the broader society.
Status of Women Canada is “the federal government agency which promotes gender equality, and the full participation of women in the economic, social, cultural and political life of the country.” ;
From Freedom of Information sources, the 1997 – 2003 funding from S.O.W. to;
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada – $734,120.00
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC) – $302,089.00
I looked for an online financial report. What I found was this 1994 report by MP John Bryden;
It is difficult to describe this advocacy group in any detail because neither letter nor telephone calls could persuade staff to release a financial statement or descriptions of programs.
They gave out only one small brochure and the text of a speech to the parliamentary committee studying the Lobbyists Registration Act.
Because non-profit organizations are entitled by law to withhold whatever they please from the public, the spending practices of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC) cannot therefore be examined.
The CCAAC has had the benefit of substantial government funding for years. Since 1983
it has received $2,005,767 from the Department of the Secretary of State (Womens’ Program) alone. Additional grants from other ministries are likely but, since the published Public Accounts only records grants of over $100,000, this is almost impossible to track.
The ministry-supplied printout of the CCAAC’s funding history, however, is revealing in another way. Beginning in 1992, sustaining grants previously described as “Operational Funding” were changed to “Program Funding.” This change would deceive a person calling up the post-1991 accounts into believing that the listed sums are for specific programs or projects when, in fact, they are still for salary and office expenditures.
Since major grants from the Secretary of State tended to be the same sums to the same organizations year after year, there are many examples of such camouflaged core funding. The organizations include: National Action Committee on the Status of Women, Women’s Legal and Education Fund, National Watch on Women in the Media Inc., the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, and so on.
More recent government funding;
We received funding in 2004 for a major three year project through the Social Development Partnerships Program.
That page indicates financial statements are “available on request”, so perhaps rules have been tightened. I have emailed the CCAAC for more information on how much of their total funding is government derived – I’ll let you know if I get a reply.
With all the talk about campaign reform, perhaps another amendment is in order – one that disqualifies any non-profit or charitable organization that recieves more than 10% of their funding from government sources.
That would leave us with .. ah.. the Fraser Institute and Taxpayers Federation, I believe. (And Real Women, as has been pointed out in the comments.)
Another Liberal funded lobby group leaps in to the election?
Hmmmm
Tired.
PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Citizen
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PNAME: Letters
PAGE: B5
BYLINE: Emile Therien
SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen
WORD COUNT: 309
–
————————————————————————
A safer community
–
————————————————————————
The Canada Safety Council is pleased to hear that the City of Ottawa
has
announced a gun amnesty for people to turn in illegal guns. Canada
Safety Council strongly agrees that holding a gun amnesty program will
get guns out of homes and off the streets.
Problems associated with easy access to firearms have been
well-documented. There is general consensus among police, public-health
and safety officials that inappropriate or illegal access to guns is a
major factor in gun-related crime, accidents and suicides and that
reducing the number of guns in any community will save lives and
prevent
injuries.
CSC is a strong advocate and supporter of gun amnesty programs, which
have been successful in helping communities reduce the number of
unwanted firearms in the possession of citizens. A highly successful
gun
amnesty program was held in Manitoba during the month of June 2005. All
municipal police, RCMP, railway police and military police participated
in this public-safety initiative. During the period, 315 firearms (213
rifles, 66 shotguns, 36 handguns), 1,480 individual rounds of
ammunition, and 39 boxes of associated ammunition were turned in to
police for destruction. The Manitoba experience, which was communicated
to us by the province’s minister of justice, attests to the success of
a
well-organized and strongly promoted gun amnesty program.
We commend the City of Ottawa for this important public-safety
initiative. We are convinced such an initiative, especially at this
time, will be most successful — the end result being a reduction in
the
number of firearms in this region with an accompanying reduction in the
risk of crime, suicide and accidental deaths and injuries associated
with their use.
Emile Therien, Ottawa,
President, Canada Safety Council
More slush funds for Liberals? How can anyone condone the spending of tax dollars with no accountability to taxpayers representatives–ie Parliament? Same Liberal mentality–what is mine is mine, what is yours is mine–sit down, shut up, and do what you are told by your ‘betters’?
Every cent of tax payers money should and must be accounted for.
Bottom line. You can’t control the mind unless you control learning. You control the learning you control mind. You control the mind you control the child. You control the child you control the future. Are these people really any different than a Stalin, a Hitler, a Jimmy Jones, a Muslim fanatic?
Posted by: Western Canadian | 30-Dec-05 3:58:22 PM
All the usual welfare state parasites are out in force bcause Harper aims to take their hands out of my pockets.
There’s only room for one pair of hands in the nations pockets and they don’t belong to the “entitlement” cult.
Over several decades (since 1972), the Liberal government has funded left-wing organizations, such as feminist and homosexual organizations, which use these funds to promote their own agenda
and also to lobby the government which is sympathetic to their aims. These government-funded groups also serve the purpose of giving the appearance of public support for change, which is then promoted by the biased media. The reality, however, is that most left-wing organizations, and especially feminist ones, have only limited membership. They serve only as a front to promote the government�s own left-wing agenda. Conservative organizations, such as REAL Women, are denied government funding, and, therefore, cannot play as influential a role in the development of policies, and do not operate on a level playing field in Canada. [emphasis added]
The Silencing of the Conservative Voice in Canada (PDF)
More pertainent to this special interests funding trail is that most political lobbies are funded by the government or off shoots of its various departments and bureaucracies. It amount to the government creating the percieved public need for policy directions it wants to take….left out of this political contrived lobbying is the voice of the majority. We live in a sick political culture when the government is supplying all its own lobby efforts to justify its unstated agendas.
I concur with Kate lobby reform and public funding od same is in order.
More pertainent to this special interests funding trail is that most political lobbies are funded by the government or off shoots of its various departments and bureaucracies. It amount to the government creating the percieved public need for policy directions it wants to take….left out of this political contrived lobbying is the voice of the majority. We live in a sick political culture when the government is supplying all its own lobby efforts to justify its unstated agendas.
I concur with Kate lobby reform and public funding of same is in order.
The Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC) is dedicated to publicly funded child care to sustain their own cause.
They only support the rich Liberal Daycare plan because it will provide them with the pay increases that they have been whining about.
But what will the poor dears do if they have to work for a living instead of holding forums on government funded projects? Fix motorcycles?
that amount of dough would by alot of Birkenstocks and protest signs, but very few razors.
Please add REAL Women of Canada, a moderate women’s group, to the list of non-government funded lobby groups, along with the Fraser Institute and the Taxpayers Federation. We applied for funding when we were first formed and weren’t even able to get government application forms until we facetiously told them we represented lesbian mothers. Then the forms came along with a hand-written note from the then minister blessing our efforts.
Kate, you’ve done something very important with this post.
I’ve long had every reason to believe that there’s a staggering number of special interest organizations in addition to those mentioned in said post which owe their existence to grants from Liberal government departments in the manner you’ve identified.
These special interest groups exist at the pleasure of the Liberals as long as they’re in power. Therefore, it’s in their own “special interest” to automatically support the Liberal Party of Canada in everything and to automatically denounce their main rivals, the Conservatives. We’ve seen this over the years with, for example, these special interest groups going before the MSM to angrily or tearfully hurl terrible accusations at the Conservatives, never knowing what they’re saying; only that they’ve been ordered to do so in the execution of their duties, all paid for by you and me.
And all for the purpose of the Liberals’ deconstructing and/or reengineering the social foundation upon which the country was originally built and which really isn’t in need of overhaul at all. This experimental foundation the Liberals are trying to get under the federation is unproven, experimental and extreme. Time, I believe, will prove this to be the case, as we’ve seen before with past Liberal radical social transformations.
I have also long suspected that all the extreme-leftist cases that go before the courts, including the Supreme Court, are actually funded via the special interests, which themselves are funded by the taxpayers without their consent. After all, where are so many destitute leftists going to get the thousands or even millions of dollars required to retain legal counsel for the long haul it takes to get their cause approved by the politically-chosen judges?
And what about the non-leftist citizens with genuine, serious grievances? They have to fend for themselves, and judges often reject the very idea of accepting their cases. See, it’s mostly leftists who go to the courts and get the rulings they want, which are then acquiesced to by the Liberals without respect to democracy.
It’s part of the vast network of leftists and corrupt Liberals and others who scratch each others’ backs for a piece of the pie that comes out of our paychecks or from checks we send the CRA by April 30th each year.
No wonder our taxes are so bloody high and we get so bloody little back to show for it.
Another reason to get rid of the Liberals. They’ll take any risk for the federation in order to stay in power. They thought they could get away with it, and I urgently hope they don’t, for the sake of the very future of Canada.
The Liberals have funded fellow travellers, provided speedy access to Ministers for those groups, and then told Canadians these groups are representative of all Canadians.
Seasoned political watchers have known for years of how Liberal insiders were government funded.
The main stream media, almost in lockstep with the Liberal government has either ignored this issue, or supported this scam on Canadians.
Why?
When you look at the owners of many major media corporations in Canada, you see Liberal supporters.
I fully expect, if Canadians are foolish enough to vote in a Liberal government on January 23rd, to see a move against blogging by the Liberals.
It could be hidden inside the copywrite legislation, or buried inside some other legislation.
The Liberals in this campaign have learned a little about the power of free speech and its ability to harm a government.
Bloggers should be prepared.
Tired.
kdl’s comment immediately above my last post is evidence to support my contentions.
Proof the Liberals have been trying to do strange stuff with our money but without our consent. They don’t stand for tolerance of various views… they only support those who in turn support them, no matter whom, no matter what the cause. Everybody wants something and the Liberals will consider giving it to them as long as they get the electoral support in turn.
Remember, for instance, Paul Martin’s schmoozing with the Tamil Tigers terrorists? Remember Jean Chretien’s intervention on behalf of the elder Khadr, an Al Qaeda terrorist and Bin Laden crony?
The evidence is all over the place.
The Liberal slime machine has no constraints and knows no bounds.
Gee, I guess it is too late to submit my grant application for ‘The Texas Canuck Association for Living Abroad On The Taxpayer’s Dollar’ .
Oh well, I still have my ‘Canadian Photographer Too Lazy To Earn An Income’ application to the Canadian Arts Council.
“Additional grants from other ministries are likely but, since the published Public Accounts only records grants of over $100,000, this is almost impossible to track.”
This is a ridiculous example of ways our money is being squandered. The law here needs changing so that if any organization receives over $100,000 total from any/all Ministries it should need to declare each. This will minimize double dipping into our pockets, as well as ensure the exact amount received is displayed.
Better, yet, let organizations should raise their own money. If you have to rob someone to pay for someone else’s job or hobby, then it’s probably something worthless anyways.
No one should complain about money going to this essential organization. Child care advocacy is the highest calling, and as such, is beyond criticism. Some day, in efficiently run Government daycares our children will be educated and molded to perfection. Canada will do the job way better than any of the Govt.’s that tried in the past. The Soviets, North Korea, N.Vietnam, P.R.China, 1930′ Germany etc. are/ were just a bunch of amateurs compared to our highly educated Socialists of today. Children should be voluntarily removed from their parents at age 5, and boarded at state run daycares until age 18, when they can be safely released into society. Perental contact could be maintained through the internet. Experts can determine the future careers, hobbies, recreation, beliefs, and sexual preference of the child while in Care. The end result will be Canadians leading the world in “civilization”. We are already superior to the Americans, and with a bit of tweaking, we can be better then Everybody! My Liberal heart poundeth rapidly!
I also have a plan for the removal and termination of the excessively aged non-essential persons in our utopia.
No unelected special interest group should receive ANY tax-payers money to lobby the government to accept their self-interested agenda. Since these groups may not speak for the majority of tax-payers and indeed may be speaking in opposition to the majority of taxpayers, they should be responsible for raising their own funds. Like the rest of us, they can exercise their approval or disapproval of government policy at election time.
I sincerely hope that once the Liberals are trounced out of power, all public funding to these sorts of special interest lobby groups must be ended as soon as possible.
I don’t like having my money used to give some asshat imbeciles a well-paying job just for the purpose of telling me what’s what when I can figure it out for myself. I’m sick and tired of being told lies and threatened with being called “intolerant” simply for opposing any social deconstruction or reengineering the Liberal state wants to force on Canada simply for the purpose of rewarding their bizarrely radical supporters on the ultra far left.
Canada needs to return to the good, common sense principles that built it in the first place. Hard work, personal responsibility, minimal government without all the morbid obesity of scandals and boondoggles and criminal investigations of the governing party, of which there are, what, thirty-five, etc.
What the Liberals do isn’t build Canada. They simply mess around with everything and use tax dollars for their own sybaritic gratification, plus that of their families and cronies.
Thank you, Canadian Sentinel, for saying it a lot beter than I can!
Kate, this is another excellent post, but are you sure the Ukrainian Canadian Congress belongs on your list?
I personally know past and present executives of this organization and far as I know it it is funded by private (and often small individual) donations and has received basically zero dollars from the federal government for the past decade or so.
As an occasional donor I am fairly well acquainted with the UCC’s workings and have never seen it lobby for the federal Liberal party/government. Some individual Canadians of Ukrainain descent may, but that doesn’t equate with the UCC doing so, especially given its membership consists of community organizations, not individuals.
Do you have evidence of six-figure tax funding to this organization? If so, there will be hell to pay!
It’s the same here in Toronto – Mayor Miller dumps tons of cash into lobby or social groups that are supposed to help the poor/minorities/women/aboriginals/disabled etc. etc. but in fact they spend a great deal of their time ensuring that their gravy train of taxpayers dollars doesn’t dry up.
A quarter of a BILLION dollars annually is spent on ensuring we have homeless people in Toronto – meals are catered, clothing is delivered, camping gear is brought to them, alcohol, cigarettes, extra cash etc. etc. – this does nothing but entrench the homeless, why on earth would they leave if such services are provided?
Meanwhile, the City of Toronto spent a lousy three million bucks fixing potholes last year – it’s no wonder we spend so much fixing our cars so we can get to work to pay our taxes….
The portion quoted is part of a report. If you click on the link, you’ll find the original source. As noted it’s more than 10 years old, so things may have changed.
What irks me the most is the Liberals new strategy of saying they’re all for universal brotherhood, helping the poor and the “common good”, while the Tories want us to fend for ourselves.
I’m poor. (Actually I hate using that term when there’s people in ABSOLUTE, rather than relative poverty in the world, but I’m poor enough to meet a bureaucrat’s disingenuous definition). No Liberal policy has ever helped me, they have made my life more difficult. I would be much more able to make ends meet each month, if my taxes were lower. I can’t afford to fund all of these special interest groups and investigations into corruption, or the CBC, or Pierre Pettigrew’s trips etc, etc, etc.
At the beginning of this fiscal year, I decided to track exactly how much tax I pay. I kept every single receipt (even for chocolate bars) and I’m tracking gST, pst, income tax, cpp, etc…. With a few months to go, I’m at nearly $1,200 in gst and pst alone (taking into account my gst rebate cheques as well) (I could’ve spent that on beer and popcorn!). It wouldn’t be so bad if I was funding legitimate things like good quality healthcare. But, to paraphrase Kate, I have zero-tier healthcare.
I hope we elect our first CPC MP here on PEI! I want to fend for myself, with my rights protected by the feds…not be patronized by outdated communist slogans
Well-said, Angela! You hit the nail on the head!
Most folks actually already “fend for themselves”, like you and me.
How dare the Liberals try to tell us we’re well-off under their regime? We know we’re not!
What the Conservatives (and I’m one) want to do is make Canada work better all over again to provide economic opportunities by ending Liberal contractionist, redistributionist and distortionary economic policies whose only result is more and more dependence upon the state and more Liberal seats in certain areas.
The people have awaken. They have seen the scandals, the criminal investigations and all the wasted and stolen tax dollars whose only result was to help the Liberals stay in power.
The wave may have arrived, finally. Western support has solidified for the Tories. Ontario now gives more support to the Tories outside
Toronto than to the Liberals. In Quebec polling, in fact, the Conservatives now are getting the support of up to one in five Quebeckers, pretty much tied with the Liberals. This is very significant. And here in the Maritimes, the Conservatives are finally seriously fighting the Liberals for many more seats than before, sometimes equalling them in the polls.
I hope the sun is about to finally break through the dispersing dark clouds of “Liberalism” and bring renewal to the land…
Nice to see another east coaster here, Sentinel:-)
Welcome to the blogging community, Angela! I’ve just visited your site and will do so again.
Come on over to
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com
where I hit the Liberals really, really hard with the truth and with my perspective on things.
Angela , Angela.
you are not of the elite.
you are one of the great unwashed.
you are not entitled to your entitlements.
those are reserved for the elitist overlords.the baystreet bullies and their peacetower preservers of the status quo.
I am you and you are me and we are all together.
see how we run like pigs from a gun .see how they fly . Im crying.(J. Lennon)
anyway , welcome aboard. you have nothing to gain but your freedom.
So aparently the Liberal gag law does not apply to Liberal/government-freindly and government-funded lobby groups!
I did my MPA at Queen’s in 1993, and they taught us how beneficial it was that the government funded lobby groups to take cases before the Supreme Court. The thought was they need to fund those who could not otherwise pay for it, to ensure that the government was not oppressive.
What was immediately obvious to me, even in my university days of liberal haze, was that this amounted to only funding liberal organizations.
But what we learned was that even under Mulroney these groups were still funded. Mulroney couldn’t pull the funding, at least not entirely, because then he’d be labelled sexist.
So here’s what I’m wondering: do you all think the tide has turned? In 1987, people were really sensitive to the “women’s issue” question. I think people are sick of it now, personally. Most of us know women have achieved equality, and it’s men who are often being hurt in their attempt to join the police force, etc.
Would there be more public support for cutting this funding now? Imagine the outcry if they had “stolen money from women” in 1987. Would there be that outcry now?
The funding should be phased out and requirements for getting funding should, at the same time, be tightened. Left-wing extremists should be required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, like in a serious job interview, that they’ll represent all members of their group equally, including conservatives, Christians, Jews, etc. Existing organizations already receiving funding should have to provide this proof, too, or lose all funding. If they’re not about equality, if they go against the Charter, then they can’t have our money. Bottom line: we don’t have to give them any.
Besides, to fund only womens’ groups but never mens’ groups is sexist and unconstitutional. This should be the rationale: not only does it take money away from health care, etc. and keep taxes high, it’s discriminatory to men.
And Sheila, you’re correct: men are now actually being discriminated against. I did a post awhile back on my blog wrt the Liberal gov’t having been caught with a racist and sexist hiring policy via a leaked email. And the very next day, as if they were surprised they had the no-more-hiring-white-males policy, they abolished it. The damn racist/sexist “Liberals” were caught red-handed.
The Liberals are claiming in advertising they’ll “protect minorities”, but they only do so for the particular minorities whose support and whose votes come their way. All other minorities can fend for themselves, as we well know. Where were they when the Holocaust survivor was beaten up by pro-Palestinian rioters at Concordia University? Where are they when the Quebec language police discriminate against Anglophones and other non-Francophones?
I also read somewhere awhile back in one of the MSM papers that someone was fired for simply being Jewish, and the employer actually said so! Where were the Liberals then? Where was the public outcry? All I saw of it was that one little report buried deep inside the paper, I think it was. Wish I could remember which paper it was.
Don’t believe any claims made by the Liberals, who actually began negative advertising tonight, as I saw a Liberal commercial on the Showcase channel (while surfing) using Mr. Harper’s eyes’ natural appearance to instill a feeling of dread in viewers and there were other images where it looked as if Harper was angry or something. Paul Martin’s pictures were flattering in contrast. I believe the ad will backfire on the Liberals, as it’s just negativity without facts and without content. Besides, didn’t they feel anything when their last leader had his facial appearance used against him in a negative ad? Guess they think they’re “entitled” to do stuff whereas no one else is, eh?
To quote Ayn Rand, the smallest minority is a minority of one.
Anyone can research Chief Mountain’s attempts to mount a Charter challenge against the Nis’ga tribe in BC to see where the Libs stand with minority rights. (They seem to allow status “Indians” only collective rights, rather than individual rights).
Or how about George Zeliotos – a.k.a the man who teamed up with Dr. Chaouilli to get the long-ignored Charter decision on healthcare?
The Libs version of minority rights is appointing someone with the same reproductive organs or skin colour to speak on your behalf (with the assumption that everyone in your sex or rights will have the same interests) with buckets of tax money.
Canadian Sentinel–
I agree with you perfectly that such funding should be phased out.
My question, though, is will the majority of Canadians agree? In our soundbite world, the special interest groups need only cry that the Conservatives hate women, and people may listen.
With the Conservatives trying so hard not to appear racist or sexist, will they really target these special interest groups? Or will they continue the funding like Mulroney did?
Has the political culture turned enough? I live in small town Ontario, where it has. But what about in the urban centres? What about in the rest of Canada? That’s what I’m wondering about. And worrying about.
Hey Angela from Charlottetown – that’s where I am too!
Sheila: I do think the tide has turned, but the phasing out of funding would have to be handled with kid gloves and the wisdom of Solomon. Don’t expect it to happen though unless the CPC is in majority territory.
Sheila, I would respond to your last question exactly as did Linda.
An alternative would be to just really tighten regulations and enforce them and also extend funding to organizations which haven’t received them because the Liberals discriminated against them in favor of others.
Then perhaps someday all funding to special interests could be abolished, with all groups being equally affected. Then it wouldn’t be believable to claim discrimination since everyone would be treated equally.
If it were up to me, I’d abolish all special interest funding under the rationale that not only is it expensive and takes money away from far more important things while keeping taxes high, but it also, because it’s available to some groups and not to others, it’s discriminatory and therefore against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Of course, it’d be via tightening requirements and a slow phasing-out. It’d require some public relations work as well. But I think it’s saleable.
Just like whe the CHILDRENS DEFENSE FUND put out the nasty ad claiming our founding fathers were behind on the child care what a bunch of liberal rats