Two small cities in Manitoba have the distinction of being the most generous contributors to charity in the country, according to a
Statistics Canada report on charitable donations in the 2022 tax year.
Steinbach, Manitoba, with a population of
around 18,000, had a median donation of $2,230, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter. That is six times higher than the median for Canada, which was $380.
Winkler, Manitoba, with a population of
over 12,000, was number two nationally, with a median donation of $1,820—nearly five times the national average.
The mayor of Winkler is pleased—but not that surprised.
“We have an incredibly generous community. No matter what the need is, over and over again, time and time again, our community shows up,” said Mayor Henry Siemens.
He said part of the reason is that a significant number of people in Winkler take their Christian faith seriously and give to their church.
Their belief also means they give to other causes—such as a one-stop community service centre called
Central Station Community Centre, which offers programs that include a food cupboard, community meals, and training of advocates to help with everything from housing and low-income support to addiction services and physical and mental health services.
“Central Station is an organization in our community that looks to try to connect people who may be falling through the cracks … with the service provider most likely able to help them,” said Mr. Siemens. “That is something that resonates closely with people in Winkler, to make sure that nobody is falling too far behind.”
Sports also gets a lot of support, he added.
“We’ve had a number of sports fields that have been redone through community donations. We had our golf course, built a new building completely through community donations. We’ve had parks built through community donations,” said Mayor Siemens. “It helps us to be the community that we are.”
Top 10 Generous Communities
In 2022, the median donations in the top-10 most generous Canadian communities with population of over 10,000 were as follows:
- $2,230 in Steinbach, Man.
- $1,820 in Winkler, Man.
- $1,440 in Lacombe, Alta.
- $1,000 in Chilliwack, B.C.
- $1,000 in Abbotsford, B.C.
- $980 in Lethbridge, Alta.
- $930 in Portage la Prairie, Man.
- $800 in Wetaskiwin, Alta.
- $740 in Brooks, Alta.
- $720 in Camrose, Alta.
Of the country’s
10 provinces, “Manitoba remained Canada’s most charitable province in 2022,” the StatCan report said. The median donation in Manitoba was $590 that year. This was followed by Alberta ($580), British Columbia ($550), Saskatchewan ($540), Prince Edward Island ($520), Ontario ($480), Nova Scotia ($430), New Brunswick ($410), Newfoundland and Labrador ($390), and Quebec ($150).
Concerning Trend
The report also points out that both the number of donors and total donations decreased in 2022.
The
number of people claiming charitable contributions has in fact been dropping since 2010, when over 5.74 million people making this claim. By 2022, that number had dropped to 4.95 million, even though the population of the country has gone up.
That’s a trend Winkler’s mayor finds concerning.
“There are so many needs in communities that our federal and provincial governments aren’t able to support,” said Mr. Siemens. “There’s just absolutely no way that the municipality themselves can do all of that. And without the generosity of the community, there are going to be some really big holes.”
“That’s a concern, a really big concern,” he added.
The MP representing Steinbach, Conservative Ted Falk, sponsored a
private member’s bill in 2016 to give charitable donors the
same tax credit as political donors—currently people get a much bigger tax break donating to a political party than donating to a registered charity.
“Feeding politicians should never be more important than feeding the hungry, healing the sick, educating the poor, or restoring the broken-hearted,” Mr. Falk
told the House of Commons on April 11, 2016. “This is not right. It is not fair.”
“Life is about choice,” said
François-Philippe Champagne, then the parliamentary secretary to the minister of finance and now industry minister. It would cost the federal treasury about a billion dollars a year, he added.
