Apr 2019 Charity & NFP Law Update
This Charity Law Bulletin (“Bulletin”) provides a brief overview of the general steps that are required in order to incorporate a federal corporation under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (“CNCA”), and apply for registration as a “charity” under subsection 149.1(1) of the ITA. This Bulletin assumes that the charity will carry out its activities primarily in the Province of Ontario, and therefore this Bulletin provides some commentary on a few of the more important issues relevant to charities operating in that province. This Bulletin does not provide a complete summary of all issues to be considered when incorporating and applying for charitable status given the complexity of the requirements that may apply to an organization under the CNCA and the ITA. Organizations wanting to incorporate and apply for charitable status should work with their legal counsel to review and address all applicable issues.
This Bulletin will focus on the incorporation procedures to be undertaken pursuant to the current regime established by Corporations Canada under the CNCA. While charities operating across Canada will also need to consider other compliance issues including, but not limited to, extra-provincial registrations, privacy, fundraising, investment powers, as well as legal risk management issues, those legal issues are beyond the scope of this Bulletin. This Bulletin has been prepared using plain language as much as possible in order to facilitate understanding of the issues described in this Bulletin by those volunteers of charities who may not necessarily have any legal background. As such, footnotes to authorities are not included, although references to resource websites are provided where appropriate.
For the balance of this Bulletin, please see Charity & NFP Law Bulletin No. 446.