Rarely, if ever, do Canadians put the acronym CRA and the word “Hallelujah” together.

But the federal tax office definitely deserves our huzzahs this week for its announcement that it will extend the deadline for 2024 charitable donations by one month to Feb. 28.

“To help provide certainty as we head into tax season, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is confirming that it will proceed with administering the 2024 deadline extension for charitable donations,” tax brass wrote with the well-known ebullience of green eye shade accountants. “The CRA is administering this proposed legislation, consistent with its long-standing practice.”

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Quibblers might niggle that it certainly took long enough for those in charge to let Canada’s 88,000 charitable entities know their generous donors can now give and have their contributions applied to the tax returns they’re getting ready to submit. A void of information compounded by oodles of confusion from Parliament being prorogued left many charities wondering what to do about the near collapse of giving during the critical Christmas season.

As the Register has reported, some agencies took hits as hard as 64 per cent losses to their normal charitable intake when Canadians couldn’t put cheques in the mail because of the month- long Canada Post strike. We share at least some of their pain. Had the cutoff date for donations remained at the traditional Dec. 31, we would have seen a decline of about 40 per cent compared with the normal giving from which we benefit. 

Fortunately, because we have a substantial group of generous and dedicated donors, we saw a welcome uptick once the mail started to flow again, although we remain significantly behind where we need to be. 

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With the best of intentions, federal Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc heightened the schlemozzle by announcing on Dec. 30 an intention to “introduce legislation” to extend the charitable tax deadline – only to have a certain retiring Prime Minister nix any legislative proposals at all by shutting down Parliament until early March.

Without pointing partisan fingers, we admit to bafflement as to whether the sorry situation owed more to the federal Liberal government’s lack of preparedness, panic, or stubborn incompetence. 

The reality, however, is that it was obvious at its start in mid-November that the postal strike would drag on well into the prime giving season of the year, especially when the government rejected any consideration of back to work legislation. It’s worth emphasizing, too, that the interruption of mail delivery occurred against the backdrop of data from Imagine Canada showing Canadians were prepared to significantly increase their charity in 2024. 

Given that, it remains an ever-living mystery why it took until the end of January for the ministers in charge of the file to give Canada Revenue officials the thumbs up to issue this week’s clarifying statement. After all, it’s not like they don’t know that charities across the country generate $5 billion in defrayed tax from Ottawa. It’s a lot of flow-through cash that helps with everything from hot lunches for needy kids to printer’s ink for certain Catholic newspapers. How did they think we were all going to get by without the help of those who freely give?

A related conundrum is why this country’s media class largely ignored the whole story of charities at the tipping point because of federal government muddling. Secular news outlets that could normally be counted on to frantically decry injustice perpetrated against a weeping willow in a neighbourhood park (assuming the reportage generated increased clicks and eyeballs) were suddenly seemingly oblivious to the plight the country’s charities faced thanks to Ottawa’s shortsighted fumbling.

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In fairness, Canadian news organization were seized to the point of obsession toward the end of 2024 with the effective collapse of a government that feeds them through hundreds of millions of direct tax subsidies to support their perpetual self-identification as defenders of democracy.  There was also the incoming president in the foreign country south of us threatening potentially crippling tariffs just because we’re not the 51st state. Neither development is a small matter. Surely, though, a looming financial threat to everything from food banks to pregnancy care centres to, well, community-centred journalism should have set off alarm bells in what remains of the nation’s newsrooms. 

The good news is the storm appears to have passed without the media knowing it existed, and for that we have the CRA to thank. Those last six words normally never appear together. But we’ll take them, with gratitude.