ONCA update

The Government of Ontario has introduced motion #89 in the Legislature. This motion extends the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (ONCA) by another year, until December 2021. This was necessary because legislation is automatically cancelled if it does not take effect in 10 years, and the ONCA was passed in 2010 so would be cancelled if it was not proclaimed by December 2020. We have been assured that the ONCA is still on track to be proclaimed before the end of 2020. However, this motion is needed in the event of delays as regulations and the online business registry are put in place this fall. It is a housekeeping motion.

Specific sections of the ONCA are not included in the motion to be extended into 2021. This means they will disappear from ONCA. These sections relate to requirements to give a vote to non-voting members and give a veto to different classes of members. The nonprofit sector has been advocating to remove these two provisions from ONCA for a long time. Their removal means non-voting members will not have a vote and different classes of members will not have veto over key corporate decisions. ONN is pleased that these amendments to ONCA have been implemented and we will continue to advocate for immediate proclamation and a user-friendly online registry system for Ontario nonprofits.

Read the transcripts from the Legislative Assembly of Ontario: https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/house-documents/parliament-42/session-1/2020-09-17/hansard#P230_13894.

Learn more about ONCA: https://theonn.ca/our-work/our-regulatory-environment/onca/.