As Budgets Shrink and Social Needs Increase, the Charitable Sector Looks to Solve the Longstanding “Canadian Problem” of Direction and Control

Dave Blundell was trying to fund a maternity clinic in rural Eziama, in southeast Nigeria, to prevent mothers dying in childbirth and children being sent to orphanages.

A casual project meeting with local officials was abruptly halted with instructions for Blundell and his team to return the next day. When he did, he found a much different atmosphere. The rural leaders, all dressed in ceremonial robes, had decided to take a stand.

“The British colonized us many years ago and that generated conflict, war, and mistrust,’’ Blundell recalls the leader saying. “And what you are doing is just an extension of colonial dictatorial partnership models.

“We reject that, and we will not work within that model.’’

The partnership never recovered. Blundell tried to eke out an understanding for another year, but the Nigerian leader would not hand direction and control of the project to the Canadians. He had walked away in spirit and commitment.

As executive director of Hungry for Life, an aid agency based in Chilliwack, BC, Blundell has been dealing with this for 17 years, with hundreds of partners in 25 different countries.

It’s known in global aid circles as “the Canadian thing,’’ or more disparagingly as “the Canadian problem.”

Others have been dealing with it much longer, but the Canadian charitable and non-profit sector has clearly had enough of a provision linked to the Income Tax Act known as “direction and control,” which compels charities to “direct and control the use of its resources’’ as if it was its “own activities,’’ according to the Act.

 Click here to read the full article on The Philanthropist’s website