Would you donate to pay down national debt? Some do

Date: Saturday Dec. 24, 2011 10:00 PM ET

If you had an extra few thousand dollars lying around the house, what would you do with it? Buy a big-screen TV? Head south for a winter vacation?

How about donating it to the federal government to help pay down that half-trillion-dollar national debt?

No?

Well, you may be surprised to learn that some Canadians do make donations like that. In fact, such gifts in the last year have set a record and that surprises even the receiver general of Canada.

"It shocked me to find out in the last year it was a little over $11 million dollars," says Rona Ambrose, who is also minister of public works and government services. "That's a lot of money."

Has she ever donated some of her own money? "No, I have not," she replies with a smile. "But I actually write letters to people who do send in cheques."

The $11.2 million donated over the last year is twice the amount from the previous year.

"The majority of it is in wills," Ambrose says. "People will leave money to the government to help pay off the debt."

But Toronto estate lawyer Ian Hull suspects not all of those donations were willing.

"It would fall into the hands of the government if you had no family and no will," he points out.

Still, it might be easier to give money to the government after you're gone. For the living who are willing to donate, there are strict rules about gifts to the federal government.

"It has to go to a specific department," says Cleo Hamel, a senior tax analyst with H&R Block in Calgary. "It also has to have a letter accompanied with it saying you specifically want to have this money go to the national debt."

If you're thinking of donating and you're not put off by jumping through bureaucratic hoops, maybe some cold, hard facts will stop you in your tracks.

Since Canada's debt costs about $3.7 million an hour to maintain (according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation), the $22 million in cash and property that Canadians have donated over the past decade was enough to keep the national debt in check for almost six hours.

So, how about that trip south?

With files from CTV's Richard Madan

Source: http://atlantic.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111224/donations-national-debnt-111224/20111224?hub=AtlanticHome

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