Two major B.C. philanthropists named in audits of charities

Two prominent B.C. philanthropists, one who made his fortune in software and the other in mining, are connected to separate charities that recently had their status revoked by the Canada Revenue Agency.

Greg Kerfoot, the software millionaire, is better known as majority owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps. He has also been a major financial supporter of the Canadian women’s national soccer team over several years.

Stewart Blusson is a mining magnate who was appointed to the Order of Canada and has previously been identified by Canadian Business magazine as one of Canada’s wealthiest people.

Blusson, Kerfoot, and their respective companies are named in CRA documents connected to a series of revocations of 12 B.C. charities between July of 2022 and January of 2023. The 12 charitable foundations that had their status revoked were all connected with a single Vancouver company called Benefic Group.

Kerfoot and Blusson are both former clients of Blake Bromley, the now-retired lawyer who started and ran Benefic Group before the firm’s closure in 2020. Bromley told Postmedia News that the CRA’s recent revocations are “unfortunate and unjustified,” and said the CRA has “a conflict of interest between its primary role of increasing tax revenues by denying charitable gifts and its proclaimed role of assisting charities.”