Canada’s Ecological Gifts Program provides a way for Canadians with ecologically sensitive land to protect nature and leave a legacy for future generations. Made possible by the terms of the Income Tax Act of Canada and the Quebec Taxation Act, it offers significant tax benefits to landowners who donate land or a partial interest in land to a qualified recipient. Recipients ensure that the land’s biodiversity and environmental heritage are conserved in perpetuity.

The Ecological Gifts Program is administered by Environment and Climate Change Canada in cooperation with dozens of partners, including other federal departments, provincial and municipal governments, and environmental non-government organizations. Thanks to this team approach and a dedication to continuously evolving and improving, the Program has become more successful each year.

Between the inception of the program in 1995 and March 31, 2021, 1610 ecological gifts valued at over $977 million have been donated across Canada, protecting over 211,000 hectares of wildlife habitat. Many of these ecological gifts contain areas designated as being of national or provincial significance, and many are home to some of Canada’s species at risk.

Ecological gift donations and the motivations behind them are as varied as the Canadian landscape. They range from corporations in British Columbia donating covenants on forested land in the Gulf Islands to Atlantic communities pulling together to preserve treasured coastal habitat. What all donors share, however, is the comfort of knowing that their cherished piece of nature will be cared for in the future.

An increasing number of conservation-minded Canadian landowners take part in the Ecological Gifts Program each year. Each donation, no matter how small, makes a substantial contribution to the creation of a network of protected areas that reaches across virtually every habitat and region in Canada.

Landowners may donate ecologically sensitive land to registered environmental charities and governmental organizations.

The following groups are automatically eligible to receive ecological gifts:

• federal, provincial, and territorial governments
• Canadian municipalities
• municipal or public bodies performing a function of government

Charities must apply to the Ecological Gifts Program (EGP) to become eligible to receive ecological gifts.

Eligible charities, municipalities and municipal or public bodies performing a function of government must also be approved in order to receive a specific ecological gift donation.

 How a charity becomes eligible

 In order to be eligible to receive an ecological gift, a charity must:

• have registered charity status with the Canada Revenue Agency and maintain this status from year to year
• have as one of its primary purposes “the conservation and protection of Canada’s environmental heritage” or some similar statement of purpose
• apply to the EGP by completing the application package and send it to the National Secretariat, Ecological Gifts Program

The application package must include:

• full contact details
• the mission of the organization and some examples of the types of projects it undertakes
• the organization’s Charitable Registration Number
• a certified copy of the organization’s Letters Patent, incorporation papers or other governing documents that include the full statement of objects or purpose
• an expression of the organization’s willingness and demonstration of its financial and human resource capacity to receive and manage ecological gifts
• evidence that the organization has adopted, or has committed to adopt, national or provincial guidelines to direct its land acquisition and management practices
• a dissolution or winding-up clause that is compatible with the requirements of the EGP

The National Secretariat will respond within 6 weeks. Once approved, we will add the organization to the list of environmental charities eligible to receive ecological gifts.

Determined on individual applications

National Secretariat, Ecological Gifts Program
Canadian Wildlife Service
Environment and Climate Change Canada
351 St. Joseph Blvd.
Gatineau, QC K1A 0H3

Telephone: (800) 668-6767
Email: pde-egp@ec.gc.ca

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https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-funding/ecological-gifts-program.html

Canada

Environmental