Fair Questions for Tides Canada & Collette Travel, Pawtucket, Rhode Island

In light of the background information in the previous post, the following questions are fair:

1) Why did Collette Foundation Canada indirectly fund its sister charities in Pawtucket via Tides Canada in Vancouver and the Tides Foundation in San Francisco? Why didn't Collette Foundation Canada simply fund its sister charities directly? Why the circuitous route? 

For a set of flow charts showing how the funding of the Collette charities changed over the years, click  here.

After years of funding its charities directly, why did Collette Travel begin funding its charities indirectly through the Tides Foundation, in 2011? Was this done so that Collette Travel could obtain tax deductions - even though the vast majority of the organizations that the Collette charities fund are ineligible for funding from a Canadian registered charity?

2) Did Tides Canada make money on its transactions with the Collette charities? Mark Blumberg reported that Tides Canada charges a 10 percent fee on money that it puts through its Exchange Fund. Is that true? On $3.1 million, 10 percent is $310,000, a hefty sum.

Tides Canada’s fee schedule indicates that for its Legacy Funds, Tides Canada charges 1.75% on the first $500,000 and 1% on the remainder. The Tides Foundation in San Francisco says that it charges 1% on a fund’s first $500,000, 0.75% on the next $500,000, 0.5% of the next $4 million, and so on. Were these fees charged to the Collette charities? Or did Tides charge 10 percent, as Mark Blumberg suggests?

3) Why did Tides Canada claim to be under audit for political activity when, in fact, it wasn't? An employee of Tides Canada said by e-mail that Tides Canada was "never audited" for political activity.  All that huffing and puffing about "political harassment," was it just a ruse? A cover-up? 

• e-mail from Tides Canada

4) Why has Tides Canada repeatedly refused to answer questions about the results of its CRA audit and the $3.1 million from Collette Foundation Canada:

• December 1, 2015

• August 16, 2015

• September 9, 2016 & again the same day

• October 24, 2016 & again the same day

• October 31, 2016

5) Since 2010, Tides Canada has received $20 million from other registered charities. How much of that is accounted for by transactions like the ones that Tides Canada has engaged in with Collette Foundation Canada?

• 2010: $1.9 million
• 2011: $2.4 million
• 2012: $3.4 million
• 2013: $4.4 million
• 2014: $3.4 million
• 2015: $4.7 million