Bill C-36 Proposes to Reinforce Statistics Canada’s Independence
On February 7, 2017, Bill C-36 An Act to Amend the Statistics Act (the “Act”) received Second Reading and was referred to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. The Act proposes to create the position of Chief Statistician, who would hold office during good behaviour, with power over the methods, procedures, and operations of Statistics Canada, in addition to various other amendments to the Statistics Act. Charities and NFPs who use the information produced by Statistics Canada (e.g. for program planning or to ensure data is interpreted correctly, etc.) will want to follow the progress of this bill.
Ontario Bill 41 Allowing LHINs to Intervene in the Governance of NFPs Receives Royal Assent
On December 8, 2016, Ontario Bill 41, Patients First Act, 2016 (“Bill 41”) received Royal Assent. Bill 41 was covered in detail in the November 2016 Charity & NFP Law Update in the article “Ontario Bill 41 Would Allow LHINs to Intervene in the Governance of NFPs”. The effect of Bill 41 is to integrate the Community Care Access Centres (“CCAC”) into the Local Health Integration Networks (“LHIN”). The LHIN are given the ability, through an amendment to the Local Health System Integration Act, 2006, to appoint a “supervisor” over a health service provider (“HSP”) if the LHIN provides funding to the HSP and it considers it to be in the public’s interest to do so. The definition of HSPs is expanded to include seven new categories of health services, such as family health teams, Aboriginal health access centres and hospices. The Ontario Nonprofit Network is taking a leading role in mobilizing the sector on Bill 41, now focusing on the regulations that are still to come.