* NOTE: This story was updated on January 22, 2016 to include comments from Tecaras waste management.
MONTREAL – The non-profit organization Renaissance Quebec is Pierre Legault’s life’s work.
He founded the charity, which sells donated clothes and household items for next to nothing.
The goal? To help people get back on their feet.
“We’re like the modern Robin Hood,” he said smiling.
But there’s a problem.
“Somebody is hijacking the donations and making money with it,” he said.
“Unacceptable in my view. Totally.”
Clothing donation bins have popped up across Montreal – and in particular, in the borough of NDG – all claiming they’re part of non-profit charities.
READ MORE: Non-profit organization warns of clothing bin scams
But this is not always the case.
“It didn’t used to be possible to do that, to hijack donations that were going to poor people to make money,” said Legault.
“It’s unthinkable.”
Renaissance Quebec usually boasts about 500,000 donations a year, but ever since these for-profit companies have been setting up their boxes next to theirs, they’ve been seeing a dramatic decrease in donations.
Now, NDG city councillor Lionel Perez is putting his foot down.
He presented a motion Monday night to ask the Quebec government to keep a closer eye on these so-called charities.
“There are a lot of shady practices by different, private companies that in fact, try to demonstrate that they’re affiliated with non-profits,” he said.
The idea is to ensure proper transparency and regulation so for-profit organizations can’t affiliate themselves with non-profits.
“They only give a very minor, minute amount of the funds that are actually collected to the charities,” Perez explained.
Global News went to take a look around NDG, and quickly found almost a dozen bins.
One orange bin had a lot of stickers on it and a web address: Jerecyclemonlinge.com (I recycle my clothing).
After calling the number on the bin, a woman picked up, but as soon as she was asked which charity the bin belonged to, she hung up.
In Canada-411, the number points to the BINefit Foundation.
These bins are operated by Tecaras, a social economy and waste management business that specializes in collecting and recycling textiles.
In a letter to Global News, lawyers for Tecaras explained that their client does not intend to be mistaken for a charity and said Tecaras has been “transparent and honest” in its approach.
The letter goes on to explain that the bins do not mention any charity and provide the website address where information about Tecaras can be found.
Tecaras is a private company that collects and recycles textile materials.
Their website says they support Kids For Kids, BINefit and the Club des petits déjeuners.
Perez is also asking that all collection bins be regulated on private – not public – property in order to limit the number of the bins on streets.
“It’s perceived as an issue of nuisance, an issue where there are too many boxes,” he said.
Renaissance Quebec now has only one box left in the NDG area.
It’s a direct blow to groups like Renaissance Quebec, who rely on their collection bins for donations.
“It’s a serious, serious problem,” Legault told Global News.
“We’ve seen the volume in our boxes diminish by half in the past two to three years.”
He said he’s hoping the city will follow up on the motion, so his organization can go back to helping Montreal’s needy.
rachel.lau@globalnews.ca
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