By Terrance S. Carter and Adriel N. Clayton

Requirements for Reproductive Service Charities Would Impact Related Organizations

As mentioned in the October 2024 Charity & NFP Law Update, the Department of Finance released a backgrounder titled Protecting reproductive freedom by preventing abuse of charitable status on October 29, 2024. As well, a News Release and Notice of Ways and Means Motion to introduce a bill to amend the Income Tax Act and the Income Tax Regulations (“Draft Legislation”) were also released on the same day. These items articulate concerns by the Federal government that reproductive health charities with pro-life views may be spreading misinformation about pregnancy care and therefore are required to state that they are not providing abortion services if they do not. This raises a more significant issue about the potential politicization of charitable status and the risks it poses to maintaining an effective charitable sector and civil society in Canada without fear of political interference as pointed out in our October 2024 Charity & NFP Law Update, our May 2024 Charity & NFP Update dealing with the May 2024 Senate Report on Sealing, as well as our January 2022 Charity & NFP Update dealing with the Prime Minister’s 2021 Mandate Letter about purported “dishonest counselling to pregnant women about their rights and options ineligible for charitable status […]”.

The harmful impact from politicizing charitable status was experienced by the charitable sector during the extensive audits of environmental charities that occurred approximately 12 years ago under the previous government. The lesson to be learned from that experience is that no matter what the social or political issue of the day might be (and it can change over time), the charitable sector as a whole is victimized when obtaining and maintaining charitable status is allowed to become politicized by the government of the day.

Besides the broader concern with politicization of the charitable sector, an important issue to point out is the inclusion of proposed subsection 149.1(29) to the Income Tax Act. This proposed subsection builds on proposed subsection 149.1(27) that requires charities offering reproductive health services to explicitly disclose any limitations in services, including if they do not provide abortion or birth control. Subsection 149.1(29) takes this a step further, and would require:

An other registered charity that expressly or implicitly advertises the services, advice or information in respect of the prevention, preservation or termination of pregnancy on behalf of the registered charity referred to subsection (27) that is providing them must disclose in a clear and prominent manner each of the circumstances referred to in that subsection that applies to that registered charity in all public communications from that other registered charity advertising those services or that advice or information, including on that other registered charity’s website and any social media platform it uses.

In effect, subsection 149.1(29) would mean that any registered charity which “expressly or implicitly advertises the services, advice or information in respect of the prevention, preservation or termination of pregnancy” (whatever “implicitly” means) of a charity caught under subsection 149.1(27) is subject to the same requirements, including the possibility of revocation. This would serve to ostracize and alienate charities caught under subsection 149.1(27), as other registered charities may wish to avoid becoming subject to the same provisions that might otherwise lead to their possible revocation.

Proposed Amendments Would Create Long-Term Care Homes Cultural Pilot Project

Ontario’s Ministry of Long-Term Care (the “Ministry”) has proposed amendments (the “Amendments”) to Regulation 246/22 under the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 (the “Act”). The initiative aims to implement a pilot program (the “Pilot”) to evaluate how changes to the long-term care (“LTC”) waitlist prioritization process can improve access to “cultural, ethnic, religious, and linguistically appropriate care.”

Stakeholders had expressed concerns about a growing lack of access to LTC homes that align with the cultural preferences of applicants, including a decline in residents who “match” the specific culture served by such homes. This has reportedly impacted the ability of these homes to maintain and deliver culturally specific services.

The proposed Pilot would allow placement coordinators to prioritize crisis waitlist applicants who identify with the cultural focus of certain LTC homes. These homes, selected for the Pilot, would be designated as primarily serving specific cultural, ethnic, religious, or linguistic groups.

The Ministry proposes changes to Part IV of Ontario Regulation 246/22 to enable the Director (a specific administrator at the Ministry, designated as such under the Act) to designate specific LTC homes or units/areas within specific homes for participation in the Pilot. In these designated homes, modified waitlist rules would allow applicants from the designated cultural group to rank higher on the crisis waitlist if their urgency of need is equal to that of other applicants.

Applicants will continue to be ranked by urgency of need for admission. Only among applicants with equal urgency, those who align with the cultural, ethnic, religious, or linguistic focus of a designated home will receive priority.

​Read the November 2024 Charity & NFP Law Update