The CRA has published a “readout” on the meeting of the Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector (ACCS)(pronounced axe!) on August 25, 2022. These readouts provide almost no useful information. I have been highly critical of the Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector in a number of blogs and I will not repeat these numerous criticisms here.
There was one paragraph in the readout that left me wondering and intrigued:
Meeting facilitator Kim Fuller opened a discussion on forward planning to determine what recommendations the Committee wants to focus on in the coming year. The Committee identified several topics of interest, including administrative issues such as the charitable registration process and governance of the Committee itself; policy issues relating to the definition of charity and charitable purpose, and non-profits; and data issues including transparency around non-profit organizations, other qualified donees, and non-qualified donees.
To be positive for a second – administrative issues such as the charitable registration process is important. What is “governance of the Committee itself”? Can we expect improvements in how the Committee operates? I sure hope so.
While “policy issues relating to the definition of charity and charitable purpose” is a familiar discussion, the reference to “and non-profits” might be interesting. Non-profits, unlike charities, have very little regulation and almost no transparency. The rules for NPOs have not really changed since 1917 and a few things have changed in the world we live in over the last 105 years! The name of the committee talks about the “Charitable Sector,” but seeing as there is not a similar advisory committee dealing with non-profits, it makes sense that this committee at least tries to broach some non-profit issues (albeit it is a different part of CRA that is responsible for them).
There is a reference to “data issues including transparency around non-profit organizations, other qualified donees, and non-qualified donees.” Maybe there is a realization after the Hockey Canada scandal that transparency in the non-profit and charity sector is not adequate. For those who are interested, here is our submission to the Federal Finance Committee on improving transparency in the non-profit and charity sector.