Below are the full audited Hockey Canada’s financial statements for the last eight years. As we have noted before, Hockey Canada is a soliciting corporation under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (“CNCA”) and was supposed to file its financial statements with Corporations Canada every year. They never filed their financial statements for 2014-2021. Over the last few weeks, it appears that they filed them. We requested these documents from Corporations Canada.
Financial Statement for Hockey Canada – June 30, 2014
Financial Statement for Hockey Canada – June 30, 2015
Financial Statement for Hockey Canada – June 30, 2016
Financial Statement for Hockey Canada – June 30, 2017
Financial Statement for Hockey Canada – June 30, 2018
Financial Statement for Hockey Canada – June 30, 2019
Financial Statement for Hockey Canada – June 30, 2020
Financial Statement for Hockey Canada – June 30, 2021
There was a recent Interim Hockey Canada Governance Review report from The Honourable Thomas Cromwell, C.C. and it noted on page 23 the following (with my emphasis):
Hockey Canada’s position regarding the implementation of the COC Code within their organization is that, while having some changes imposed on them may be convenient, they favoured a more organic approach in order to achieve the underlying objectives of the COC Code without being mandated by by-laws (for example, as it relates to equal gender representation on the Board). It also took issue with matters related to the election of the Chair of the Board as well as athlete representation on the Board. Further, Hockey Canada expressed that some other changes were just not well suited for their organization, such as making the financial statements and minutes of Member meetings available to the public. Although Hockey Canada has achieved considerable financial success over the years, Hockey Canada is concerned that being seen as an organization with “deep pockets” could create some negative implications. For example, this could have an effect on their bargaining power with respect to the settlement of lawsuits, and this could also influence the amount of money that sponsors would be willing to offer in the future. This is not to mention the fact that the media could use this information to depict a negative image of the organization. According to Hockey Canada, providing minutes of Member meetings to the general public potentially raises similar concerns. We do note however that three of the four Comparator Associations discussed further below in this report, namely Canada Basketball, Curling Canada and Canada Soccer, publish their financial statements on their website. This is also true for the COC.
It is our view that any reasonably sized organization that receives public funds should provide their financial statements on their website (or through social media) and should not make people have to go through hoops to obtain these financial statements. I was recently thinking that Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments (and other funders) should refuse to provide funds to organizations that do not make their financial statements easily available to the public. Also, it would be nice one day if CRA would post on their Charities Listing or equivalent for RCAAAs the financial statements of the organizations. In our recent submission to the Finance Committee, we discuss a number of ideas to improve transparency in the non-profit and charity sector.
We have written a number of blogs over the last few months dealing with Hockey Canada, including:
Very interesting research note from the Sprott School of Business dealing with Hockey Canada and transparency (October 16, 2022)
Hockey Canada finally uploads their financial statements to Corporations Canada website. (October 13, 2022)
Blumbergs’ Pre-Budget Submission for the 2023 Canadian Federal Budget and also some comments on the lack of transparency and some recent scandals (October 8, 2022)
When is a financial statement not a financial statement? (July 27, 2022)
Hockey Canada filings with Corporations Canada (July 26, 2022)
Trudeau, Hockey Canada and the ‘real reckoning’ that probably will not happen (July 22, 2022)
Registered Canadian Amateur Athletic Associations and their financial statements (July 12, 2022)
RCAAA Transparency Project (July 26, 2015)