There are approximately 6,300 private foundations in Canada. Private foundations have been growing at a higher rate than any other type of Canadian registered charity. They have assets of around $100 Billion. Although there are some differences between a private…
The National Post recently had an article by Christopher Nardi “Charity sector worth $300B per year, but CRA audits have dropped four-fold since 2010“. It discusses the dramatic decline in CRA audits previously discussed on our blog at Dramatic changes…
Here are the CRA letters from a number of recent Canadian registered charity revocations. These letters from CRA cover many different grounds for de-registration. For a number of years, we have been providing the public with copies of CRA revocation…
The League for Human Rights of B’nai Brith and B’nai Brith Foundation District No. 22 were two Canadian registered charities that were revoked as a result of audit by CRA. I requested copies of the documents that are publicly available…
We just launched a new course on fundraising regulation in Canada. Here is a description of the course: Many Canadian charities fundraise. In total fundraising brings in over $20 billion for Canadian charities every year. Through the dedicated work of…
If you are one of the Registered Journalism Organizations and there are currently only 5 RJOs then you may find this guide T1000-2 – Completing Form T1000-1, Registered Journalism Organization Information Return (CRA) helpful for completing your annual filings. Here…
CRA recently provided a redacted letter on “Whether an individual may claim a non-refundable tax credit on their final return for a gift by will, to a U.S. organization.” The letter has a good summary of how donations by Canadian…
It looks like Bill S-216, the Effective and Accountable Charities Act has passed the Senate and will now move to the House of Commons. It was formerly Bill S-222 but died when the Liberals called that very important 2021 Federal…
I was very pleased to see an article by Roger Colinvaux “Speeding Up Benefits to Charity: Donor Advised Fund and Foundation Reform“. This US article looks at the US charity system but in Canada, we are currently examining similar issues. …
I recently read on a blog with some statistics relating to the number of audits that the Charities Directorate of CRA was conducting each year. Frankly, I could not believe the numbers so I wrote to CRA to ask them…
CRA has the ability to provide penalties to Canadian registered charities and suspend the receipting privileges and qualified donee status of a registered charity. This is in addition to other tools such as revoking the charitable status of a charity. …
In the BC case, Henderson v. Myler the BC Supreme Court dealt with a bequest. The case deals with a dispute as to how an estate should be divided as there was a will, but also a note which some…
In 2009 we wrote a short note entitled “Canadian Charities Based in Ontario and Grants to Qualified donees – Ontario is a little different” which discussed how Ontario charities could not just make grants to qualified donees which may be…
In a recent Manitoba case Dickson v. The Humane Society of Canada for the Protection of Animals and the Environment et al. in deal with a person who left money to various charities. One of those charities lost their status…
In the case of Piett v Global Learning Group Inc., 2021 SKQB 232 the Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench decided not to certify a class action on GLGI as there is already one in Ontario. Here is good coverage of the case…
The Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee (OPGT) and its Charitable Property Program will be dealing with certain charitable aspects of the ONCA transition. Here is a presentation by the OPGT entitled “The Role of the Public Guardian and…
CRA has information on its website about how Canadian registered charities must act within their legal objects and how those objects must be legally and exclusively charitable. Objects of a non-profit corporation are usually set out in the corporation’s constating…
The Ontario PGT recently published a page “Charities: making a complaint” explaining how to make a complaint about a charity. We have previously discussed the topic of complaining about charities here. Here is the full text of the PGT…
The new Ontario Not-for-profit Corporations Act (ONCA) came into force on October 19, 2021. In 2013 we launched our first ONCA Suitcase in which we consolidated available ONCA related information in one PDF document. We have created a new ONCA…
There have been various changes to the BC Societies Act. The government has identified the changes as “refinements”. “These changes will increase clarity, readability, fill gaps, and address concerns that have been identified since the introduction of the new Act.…
The Toronto Star is now focusing on the glitchy launch of the Ontario Business Registry (OBR) in their article Doug Ford’s glitchy online business registry has major law firms telling clients to avoid Ontario. The byline is “Premier Doug Ford’s…
We received a note from Corporations Canada today relating to the statutory review of the CNCA. We have covered the review before here. The note reads: Yesterday, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry laid…
Under the old Ontario Corporations Act (OCA), you had a letters patent and perhaps supplementary letters patent or two. In addition, you had by-laws. With the Ontario government bringing Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) into force on October 19, 2021,…
We often have people contacting us because they want to “update their by-law” because of the new Ontario Not-For-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA). Unfortunately, for most organizations, ONCA is not a time to “update” your by-law but much more is needed. …