Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act
As reported in the January 2015 Charity Law Update, Corporations Canada had provided an update on
the number of federal not-for-profit corporations that had continued from Part II of the Canada
Corporations Act (“CCA”) to the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act (“CNCA”). At that time, of
approximately 25,000 federal not-for-profits, including an estimated 17,000 active not-for-profits,
originally incorporated under the CCA, 11,400 had continued under the CNCA. As of June 20, 2015,
12,282 federal not-for-profit corporations had completed the continuance process under the CNCA.
While this is up somewhat, there would appear to be a significant number of federal not-for-profit
corporations that still need to complete the continuance process.
CCA not-for-profit corporations that did not complete the continuance process by October 17, 2014 may
be administratively dissolved by Corporations Canada. In this regard, as reported in previous Charity
Law Bulletins, Corporations Canada has been sending notices of pending dissolution to those
corporations that have not yet completed the continuance process. Federal not-for-profit corporations
that have not continued within 120 days of the notice will be dissolved by Corporations Canada. Since
notices of pending dissolution were being sent out by Corporations Canada as of December, 2014, it has
now been more than 120 days for such not-for-profit corporations to have responded to Corporations
Canada. As such, approximately 8,009 not-for-profit corporations have been administratively dissolved
for failing to continue to date.
If a corporation has been dissolved for failing to continue, it will need to be revived. In this regard,
Corporations Canada has a brief summary of the revival process and the steps that are required to be
revived. Of course, the prudent approach would be for corporations that have not yet completed the
continuance process to do so, regardless of whether a notice of pending dissolution has been received, in
order to avoid needing to be revived.
Ontario Not-for-profit Corporations Act, 2010
As noted in earlier updates, there is no new information in relation to the coming into force of the
Ontario Not-for-profit Corporations Act, 2010 (“ONCA”), which remains as being no earlier than 2016.
The website for the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services continues to note that the ONCA
will not come into force until the Legislative Assembly passes a number of technical amendments to the
ONCA and other statutes impacted by the ONCA, and the government is able to implement certain technology updates to support these changes. Since the Legislative Assembly has adjourned until
September 14, 2015, no updates in this regard will be anticipated until after summer.