I just reviewed a report from François Brouard, Andrew Webb, and Marc Pilon, dated November 9, 2022, entitled “Registered Canadian Amateur Athletic Association (RCAAA) List of RCAAA and issues on financial information“.
They give an introduction to the regulatory requirements of RCAAAs but also discuss RCAAA transparency, break the geographic information down according to the numbers of RCAAAs in each province and city, when RCAAAs were registered by CRA, and information on the revocation of RCAAAs.
I very much agree with certain conclusions they come to, including:
Per Canada Revenue Agency (2018): “At a minimum, financial statements consist of a statement of assets and liabilities and a statement of revenue and expenditures for the fiscal year. They should show the different sources of a registered charity’s revenue and how it spent its money”.
The financial statements of not-for profit organizations (NPO) includes five components: a statement of financial position, a statement of operations, a statement of change in net assets, a cash flow statement and notes to the financial statements (see Brouard, 2014 for examples of financial statements content). The requirement for RCAAA is below a complete set of financial statements. It could be understandable for a small RCAAA (for example, organization with revenues of less than $50,000 per year), but probably not for RCAAA with substantial assets.
They conclude with:
Conclusion
It is clear that Registered Canadian Amateur Athletic Association (RCAAA) should be more transparent and disclose more information. If they do not do it voluntarily, it may be necessary to make it mandatory. Canada Revenue Agency should not only have a list with some basic information, but should also present the T2052 form and the financial statements in a more meaningful way. The opacity in terms of financial information disclosure is not limited to Hockey Canada (Pilon, Webb, Brouard, 2022). All RCAAA and charities should be encouraged to post their annual reports and complete financial statements. An organization receiving public funding should be required to make easily accessible their financial statements, and not only available to some government officials. After all, RCAAA receive grants or contributions from governments, and they benefit from tax expenditures (Canada – Department of Finance, 2022) while donors received tax credits for individuals or tax deductions for corporations.