The Ontario Government has recently announced some small improvements to the Ontario Business Registry that will be helpful for Ontario non-profits under the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (“ONCA”). Here is the announcement from the Ministry of Public and Business Services…
The Ontario Business Registry (OBR), introduced in 2019, moved Ontario from a microfiche-based corporate system to a modern database system. Admittedly, the initial rollout was not great, and there have been many improvements to the system. There are many more…
When changing the governing documents of a non-profit (such as under ONCA or the CNCA), it’s important to understand the different functions of Articles of Amendment and Restated Articles of Incorporation. These documents serve different purposes but work together to…
Here is an updated Blumbergs’ Canadian Charity Legal Checklist. It is a checklist for Canadian registered charities to assist them with managing compliance issues. We use it as part of our informal risk reviews for registered charities. It focuses on top…
After almost three decades of dealing with governance for Canadian registered charities and non-profits and their directors, Mark Blumberg has now created a course to help non-profits and charities understand governance. We hope that you find it helpful. Here is a…
This short note covers proxies and Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (“ONCA”) corporations. In terms of proxies, Section 64(1.1) of ONCA provides: “A member may appoint a proxy holder only if the articles or by-laws of the corporation permit it.” Therefore,…
Some new features were recently added to enhance the Ontario Business Registry (OBR) system. One of the main features includes a Proof of Filing Document made available when filing an Initial Return / Annual Return / Notice of Change under…
We recently wrote to the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement to ask them why for example articles of amendments with no problems were taking about 3 months to be returned after they were filed. The Ministry…
ONCA came into force in October 2021. Ontario non-profits have had over 3 years to bring their articles and by-laws into compliance. Many Ontario non-profits were slow in making the changes and now there seems to be a backlog at…
The Ontario Government has announced that they will expand the number of service providers (currently 2) as of February 2025. This will give greater choice to Ontario non-profits that need a service provider. The current fees being charged seem quite…
Tens of thousands of Ontario non-profit corporations that were originally incorporated under Part III of the Corporations Act (Ontario), had a 3-year transition period during which to bring their constating documents (i.e. letters patent, by-laws, etc.) into conformity with the…
Today, Blumbergs Professional Corporation is releasing the 2024 Blumbergs ONCA Suitcase. The new Ontario Not-for-profit Corporations Act, 2010 (ONCA) came into force on October 19, 2021. In 2013, we launched our first ONCA Suitcase, in which we consolidated available ONCA-related…
The Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (“ONCA”) came into force on October 19, 2021 and groups have until October 19, 2024 to bring themselves into compliance with the ‘new’ act. Many groups who have not begun the process yet will probably…
We recently reviewed a document from February of 2024, Ontario Business Registry (OBR): OBR Integrations with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Essentially, this document discloses that the Ontario government provides information in an electronic format to the Canada Revenue Agency and…
It was very nice to see this notice from CRA today reminding registered charities that are Ontario non-profits under ONCA that they may need to make corporate changes and they should get CRA preapproval of objects: Charities and giving…
In October 2023, we wrote a blog entitled “Ontario Government proposing to remove requirement for charities to notify the OPGT when established”. It discussed the Ontario government’s proposal to eliminate certain unnecessary and duplicative reporting to the Ontario Public Guardian and…
The Ontario government has sent out a notice that they have updated a number of the ONCA forms. When preparing an ONCA form always try to use the most up-to-date form. Other forms than the ones mentioned below have also…
We sometimes see special provisions in Ontario non-profit corporations that give another group or individual in Canada or abroad certain approval rights for changes to certain matters that would normally be dealt with by members. We have always wondered whether…
There have been numerous improvements to the OBR since it came into being in October 2019. Here is a notice from the Ontario government about further changes: The Ontario Business Registry (OBR) online service will be temporarily unavailable due…
It is so sad to see so many Ontario non-profits spending months or years working on draft documents and then coming to a law firm “for a quick review” that, unfortunately, results in the Ontario non-profit being told that the…
With only a small percentage of Ontario non-profits having finished dealing with the ONCA process, there are many Ontario non-profits (both charities and non-charities) that will have an uphill battle to deal with the changes over the next few months.…
We are happy that more filing features are being added to the Ontario Business Registry (OBR). When an Ontario non-profit corporation continues to another jurisdiction, it is required to “file with the Director a copy of the instrument of…
There are a number of searches and filings that you can do directly on the Ontario Business Registry (OBR) with the Ontario Government. You can also use a search company (or what the Ontario Government refers to as an authorized…
Ontario Business Registry (OBR) has a new feature called The Partner Portal which will help various types of businesses that are dealing with numerous different Ontario corporations. These businesses are referred to as intermediaries. There are no fees associated with…