And I think charities right now are uniquely positioned over the summer and into the fall to make proactive submissions to the government about what this modernization project should be about.

What we often witness during times of economic stress is kind of an inverse relationship between the economy and our sector.

Often when the economy is facing challenges for charities and nonprofits, supply, as defined by money, goes down.

As Canadian families are under more stress, they don't have as much to give.

And at the same time, on the other side of the equation, demand for services rises.

And so for many organizations, both the demand for services and the cost to deliver those services grows at a time when the supply of revenues goes down.

That's what they're facing every day as they're trying to fulfill the missions.

What did that look like as a religious studies major with some underpinning of microeconomics once?

I got lucky in that I took the second half of intro economics my senior year and had an amazing professor named Richard Slotkin.

He had this analogy that sparked my interest in markets.

He asked this question, "If Martians came down, went to Congress, and said, 'We'll give you fifty billion dollars in real wealth every year, but we're gonna take fifty thousand lives,' would Congress take that deal?" Throughout most of my life, the answer would be a clear no.

I thought that was fascinating, and his answer was, "That's what the car industry has done." By making transportation more efficient, they've generated all this real wealth, but there are forty to fifty thousand people that die every year in car wrecks.

That is not a decision that can be made politically.

It's one that the markets make.

What's similar from other pools and what's different?

What's behind this?

Yeah.

We think there's a number of things.

I mean, it's obviously not just one item.

It's everything from, you know, 52% of Canadians on a regular basis saying they feel lonely, isolated, or disconnected.

Economic disruption.

When families are under stress, they need money for food, rent, you know, power, all of those kinds of things.

What's at stake here? How many Canadians benefit from the charitable sector? What are the impacts you're seeing on the ground?