Matching Charitable Donation Programs Focus on International Aid

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau encouraged people over the weekend to donate to the Canadian Red Cross to help British Columbians affected by raging wildfires and he made a similar appeal for Ontario and Quebec flood victims earlier this year.

However, unlike many international disasters like the earthquakes in Nepal two years ago or in Haiti in 2010, Canada's appeal for domestic donations isn't shored up by a pledge that the government will pony up an equal amount of cash to match the individual donors.

The federal government has had matching contribution programs for more than a dozen international events since 2004, but it has only ever done it once for a natural disaster in Canada, the massive wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta. last year.