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Calculations based on Canadian and U.S. tax returns (excerpts shown below) indicate that between 2000 and 2009, Tides Canada and and the U.S. Tides Foundation, including the Tides Center, paid a combined total of approximately $164 Million to consultants. Of that, the U.S. Tides Foundation and the U.S. Tides Center paid about $134 Million while Tides Canada Foundation and the Tides Canada Initiatives Society spent nearly $27 Million on consultants, tax returns say.
The magnitude of these payments to consultants raises a fair question: What are these consultants paid to do? Do these consultants provide advice to the Tides Foundation and Tides Canada - or on behalf of Tides to other parties? Or both? Are any of these "consultants" also lobbyists? Celebrities? Who are they and what have they done over the past decade - for a whopping $164 million?
In 2009 alone, Tides Canada paid $5.5 million to consultants according to Canadian tax returns for Tides Canada Initiatives Society ($5 million) the and Tides Canada Foundation ($575,408). Tides Canada is based in Vancouver. Five and a half million dollars is a lot of money for a Vancouver-based non-profit to pay out in one year to consultants. Where did Tides Canada get the $5.5 million to pay its consultants? In 2008, Tides Canada's payments to consultants were even higher: $7.4 million. As of Sept. 28, 2011, Canadian tax returns for Tides Canada are not yet publicly available at the web-site of Revenue Canada.
NOTE: In the graph above and in the table below, dollar figures are in U.S. dollars for the U.S. Tides Foundation and the U.S. Tides Center for the Tides Center. Figures are in Canadian dollars for Tides Canada.
Excerpts of U.S. tax returns for the U.S. Tides Foundation and the U.S. Tides Center showing the payments to consultants, are shown below. The red circles indicate the name of the organization and the amount reportedly paid to consultants in that year.
Excerpts from Canadian tax returns:
