The CEO of Tides Canada, Ross McMillan, has called for "open, honest debate about our energy future." As groundwork for such a debate, I asked Mr. McMillan (by Twitter) if Tides Canada would please post its American tax returns at its web-site. For more than a year, I have been requesting by e-mail that Tides Canada would please make its U.S. tax returns publicly available. The I.R.S. requires greater disclosure than the C.R.A. so ironically, one needs to read the American tax returns of Tides Canada in order to find out specifically what it has been funding.
Tides Canada has two entities: Tides Canada Foundation (TCF) and Tides Canada Initiatives Society (TCIS). TCF has equivalency status in the U.S. and files U.S. tax returns but to the best of my knowledge, TCIS does not. In essence, what this means, as I see it, is that whatever Tides Canada spends under the banner of TCIS doesn't need to get reported to the I.R.S. - at least not in as much detail.
Over the years, TCF has transferred substantial funds each year to TCIS. In fact, for most years - except 2008 when TCF transferred $27.3 million to B.C. First Nations in a single cheque - TCIS has been the biggest recipient of funds from TCF.
In 2009, TCF made 25 grants to TCIS for a total of $5.3 million. The stated purpose of each of these grants was reported by Tides Canada in its U.S. tax return for 2009 so we could see how much money TCF allocated to each project. For example, in 2009 Tides Canada reported:
- $848,966 on the Rainforest Solutions Project "in support of ongoing work to implement ecosystem-based management in the Great Bear Rainforest." The groups that make up the Rainforest Solutions Project are Forest Ethics Canada, Greenpeace, and the Sierra Club of B.C, according to the project's web-site.
- $783,603 "for capacity building support of Forest Ethics Canada."
- $505,134 for the Turning Point Initiative (Coastal First Nations) "to implement ecosystem-based management in the Great Bear Rainforest."
- And so on.... for more about Tides Canada's 2009 grants, click here.
Last week, Tides Canada's U.S. tax return for 2010 became publicly available at the web-site of Guidestar, an American organization that routinely gathers and publicizes the tax returns of American foundations and charities.
In the list of grants for 2010 that Tides Canada included in its 2010 tax return, TCF simply reports one transfer to TCIS for a whopping total of $7.7 million. The stated purpose of this grant is “to support TCI’s projects in the areas of social inclusion and civic engagement, leadership development and capacity building, food, environmental conservation, waters and oceans, climate and energy solutions."
Because TCF does not itemize specific grants for specific projects run by TCIS, as it did in 2009, it is not possible to know how much TCF allocated to various projects such as Forest Ethics, the "Tar Sands Education campaign," Hollyhock, The Turning Point Initiative, Canopy, the Tyee, and so on. In this way, it seems to me that there is far less transparency on the part of Tides Canada in its U.S. tax return for 2010 than there was in 2009.
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