CBC News has examined 33 Canadian churches that burned to the ground since May 2021. Just two were ruled accidental.
Investigators have determined that 24 were deliberately set while others are still under investigation. Some researchers and community leaders suggest Canada’s colonial history and recent discoveries of potential burial sites at former residential schools may have lit the fuse.
I understand why you say that, and I’d like to believe it too. I still wish there were stats on that…
Especially considering they don’t pay taxes. If the value of their social efforts don’t reach the amount of money they’d be paying in taxes, then they’re actually a net negative.
The programs these churches run are typically filling in gaps in social programs that the government doesn’t have the political mandate to enact.
If these churches were taxed you’d see their charities diminished while the funding went to some pork belly spending project, or at the very least not related to what services the church is suddenly not providing.
Not all government spending is a net positive.
Like I said, I wish there were stats on that.
You say “typically”. I think you mean “ideally”, or maybe even “traditionally”.
I think churches should be required to prove their charity like other non-taxable organizations, or they should be taxed like businesses.