First Reference Talks

Discussions on Human Resources, Employment Law, Payroll and Internal Controls

Canadian charity law

By | 2 Minutes Read

Grantmaking in Canada can be improved immensely but eliminating structured arrangements is dangerous and a red herring to the real problems with our sector

With respect to a recent bill passed by the Senate, but not the House of Commons, relating to structured arrangements/direction and control, we have prepared a number of blog posts with our concerns about the bill and its ultimate impact.

By | 3 Minutes Read

ON government access to information disclosure on ONCA – so many pages and so little said

Since February 2019 there has not been any update from the Ontario government about ONCA coming into force. As we have noted before the Ontario government is no longer referring to ONCA coming into force in early 2020. A few months ago we put in a freedom of information request on ONCA and the computer company developing the new ONBIS system. We just received the answer to my ATIP request and needless to say it does not answer either of the questions with there being some significant redactions.

By | 3 Minutes Read

On modernizing the definition of "charity"

Canadian charity law, being largely based on that of the United Kingdom, traces its roots directly back to the preamble of the English Charitable Uses Act of 1601, known as the “Statute of Elizabeth I”. Although the Statute itself was repealed in the 19th century, the preamble was legally preserved and still forms the basis of the line of case law running right to the modern day that defines what is legally charitable.

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