It’s a good time to be a religious charity in Canada.

Since Stephen Harper’s Conservatives won power in January 2006, faith-based charities, primarily Christian, have enjoyed a surge in funding from the Canadian International Development Agency, according to a study released by University of Quebec in Montreal political science professor François Audet.

From March 2005 until 2010, according to Audet’s findings, the funding received by 57 religious non-profits surged to a collective $129 million from $90 million, a 42 per cent increase.

Funding for 141 secular NGOs over the same period increased to $237 million from $226 million, up 5 per cent.

By contrast, from 2001 until March 2005, when the Liberals were in power, funding to secular charities through CIDA increased by 27.1 per cent, while faith-based organizations got a boost of 4.6 per cent.

The study will be published in the Canadian Journal of Development Studies in May.

In the House of Commons on Monday, Julian Fantino, the minister responsible for CIDA, defended the government’s funding of an evangelical group that has described homosexuality as a perversion and a sin. CIDA provides money for aid projects abroad on the basis of results, not religion, Fantino said.

The group, Crossroads Christian Communications, received $544,813 in federal money to help dig wells, build latrines and promote hygiene awareness in Uganda, where homophobia is rampant.

“We fund results-based projects, not organizations," Fantino said. “Projects are delivered without religious content, including this particular project.”

NDP MP Hélène Laverdière, critic for international cooperation, decried the fact that the religious organization was granted the funds, and also what she called a lack of transparency within the CIDA.

Audet said he has never heard of Crossroads, over the course of a 20-year career. But he said he wasn’t shocked about its inclusion on the list of funded organizations.

“It’s not a surprise because it’s not a unique thing,” Audet said. “If you look at the bigger picture, it seems to be something that has been a strategic change in international aid for the last five years.”

Audet’s study comes amid sharp debate over the future of CIDA, which distributes the majority of Canada’s $5 billion worth of foreign aid. As part of a broad series of public-sector cuts, the government has announced CIDA’s budget will be pared by $319 million over the next three years.

That unease has been amplified because CIDA has recently refused to offer explanations for why it has turned down some funding requests. Several academics and charities said Audet’s research offers evidence that political considerations have influenced CIDA.

“The Prime Minister denies it, but are we really to believe that it is a coincidence that evangelical Christians, an important Conservative Party constituency, have benefitted disproportionately?” said Stephen Brown, a University of Ottawa political science professor who studies CIDA.

Historically, a team of CIDA officials score the projects submitted and the highest-scoring ones are approved by CIDA executives. A senior level CIDA source said that has not happened in recent years, with lower-ranked projects inexplicably receiving more funding.

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Audet’s study examined CIDA contributions to 198 Canadian charities who in 2010 received a collective $366 million from Canada’s international aid ministry.

Audet said in an interview that he conducted the study after hearing anecdotally from secular charities that their faith-based cousins were winning bigger CIDA grants. He said while he knows the names of the charities involved in the study, he decided not to publish all of them.

“We don’t want to do religion bashing,” Audet said.

Julia Sanchez, chief executive of the Canadian Council for International Co-Operation, an umbrella organization that represents non-profits, said Audet’s study is concerning.

“It’s clear there’s something happening,” Sanchez said. “It raises questions that need explanation about why so much government support has moved to charities that share its values and geography.”

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Bev Carrick, the executive director of Cause Canada, a Christian charity that runs development programs in Sierra Leone, Honduras and Guatemala, said secular charities have already regained ground over the past two years.

“The idea that Christian charities are favourites or darlings of the government is really old news,” Carrick said.

Carrick said she analyzed CIDA funding grants for maternal, newborn and child health projects following the 2010 Group of Eight meeting in Huntsville, Ont. Carrick said 20 per cent, or $14 million, of funding went to 10 Christian charities, while the balance, $47 million, went to 12 secular charities. Another $11.8 million went to four universities, Carrick said.

Carrick also insisted her charity, which generates about $2.5 million a year in private donations, does not do any mission work connected to its development work.

“Our inspiration may be from the Bible, but we build roads, wells, schools, and irrigation ditches,” she said. “We’ve never used $1 to build a church or distribute a Bible.”

With files from Kamila Hinkson and The Canadian Press

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