Ontario Government Extends COVID-19 Response Orders
Essential Charity Law Update: What Every Fundraiser Needs to Know
CRA Announces New and Updated Guidance Documents
November 2020
The Canada Revenue Agency’s Charities Directorate announced the release of five new and updated guidance documents on November 27, 2020. These include the following two new guidance documents:
- CG-029, Relief of poverty and charitable registration (replacing Summary policy CSP-P03, Poverty); and
- CG-030, Advancement of education and charitable registration (replacing Policy Commentary CPC-027, Publishing a magazine; Policy Statements CPS-003, Daycare facilities, CPS-013, School councils; and Summary Policies CSP-B05, Broadcasting, CSP-S08, Scholarships, CSP-E01, Advancement of education, CSP-I06, Provision of information, and CSP-S09, School association)
At the same time, and in addition to these two new guidance documents, the Charities Directorate also announced that two guidance documents had been updated to “provide clearer information on issues that arise when charities work through intermediaries”. The two updated guidance documents are:
- CG-002, Canadian registered charities carrying on activities outside Canada
- CG-004, Using an intermediary to carry on a charity’s activities within Canada
The Charities Directorate also announced that, after receiving feedback from the charitable sector, it has finalized the following guidance:
We will publish commentary on the above-noted guidance documents in due course.
Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector’s Report Adopted by Senate
November 2020 Charity & NFP Law Update
The first report of the Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector (“Committee”), entitled Catalyst for Change: A Roadmap to a Stronger Charitable Sector (“Report”), was adopted by the Senate of Canada on November 3, 2020. The Committee was formed in 2018 to “examine the impact of federal and provincial laws and policies governing charities, non-profit organizations, foundations, and other similar groups; and to examine the impact of the voluntary sector in Canada,” and initially released the Report on June 20, 2019.
As outlined in Charity & NFP Law Bulletin No. 451, the Report sets out the Committee’s findings from a year-long study with respect to the charitable and non-profit sector, and makes 42 recommendations to the Government of Canada, focusing on various key themes to strengthen the sector, as well as proposes measures to modernize the legal and regulatory framework of the charities and non-profits.
While the Committee’s recommendations in the Report are not binding on the federal government, the Senate’s adoption of the Report, together with a request for a complete and detailed response from the Minister of National Revenue, provide the Report with further life and will ensure that the recommendations are given consideration by the government. Those in the charitable and non-profit sector will therefore want to carefully monitor the Report for the government’s response to the Report and recommendations, the need for which the Senate has indicated “has become even greater with the pandemic, [with] the rise in unemployment across the country and the fact that many people with lower incomes have been affected,” and given the fact that “charities have a very important role to play in helping them get beyond that.” It will be interesting to see what the government’s response will be.