Ontario faces an uncertain start to 2021, as cases of COVID-19 continue to grow, along with concerns over how to vaccinate nearly 15 million people. While the recently announced state of emergency will hopefully help slow infection rates, we need stronger supports to ensure that people can afford to stay at home. Paid sick days would provide a more fair, equitable, and consistent approach to...
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You can’t build a decent work movement in the nonprofit sector without women By: Pamela Uppal and Randall Terada, Decent Work Team, Ontario Nonprofit Network Shining a GBA+ light on decent work The fact that we have a highly feminized workforce changes the way in which we are building a decent work movement in the nonprofit sector. Women workers are not a separate group...
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By Liz Sutherland With a charities advisory committee, nonprofit journalism, and a “social finance” fund, the federal Fall Economic Statement says ‘an election is coming’ Last week, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau unleashed some pre-election largesse in the form of the Fall Economic Statement. Most of it — $14.4 billion in foregone tax revenue over five years — was showered on the for-profit sector but...
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By Benjamin Miller The Ontario Nonprofit Network has been studying the way the government funds nonprofits through transfer payments for many years. I was brought on this summer as a research fellow to take a fresh look at these relationships. I started by reading through Ontario’s core policy statements like the Transfer Payment Accountability Directive and the Transfer Payment Operational Policy Agreement, and the government’s...
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Court recognizes charities’ unlimited right to nonpartisan political advocacy for charitable purposes By Benjamin Miller Two years ago, Canada Without Poverty (CWP), an Ontario anti-poverty charity that advocates for policy change, took the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to court for limiting its constitutional right to political speech. This week, the Superior Court of Ontario said CWP was absolutely right. The court struck down CRA’s 10%...
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By Burkhard Mausberg Government relations is a fickle art. Its success is rarely guaranteed. Outside events can scuttle the best laid plans. Access to decision-makers is often limited. And then elections happen. All this makes government relations a marathon, never a sprint. I’ve used the words “government relations” here because the words “lobbying” and “lobbyists” have become dirty words. The image of greedy industrial lobbyists...
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By Teshini Harrison, ONN policy analyst Every Ontarian is connected to a nonprofit – whether through the cultural festival on the weekend, the environmental program at a local park, the social housing services, the hockey league at the town arena, the child care program, or the community research on food security.” – ONN Value framework for Ontario’s Nonprofit Sector Ontario has a new government. So...
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– A Toronto initiative that could be copied in cities around the province By Margaret Hancock (Family Service Toronto), Rob Howarth (Toronto Neighbourhood Centres) and Sean Meagher (Social Planning Toronto) On December 7, 2017, Toronto City Council adopted a new policy framework, called For Public Benefit, to celebrate and enhance the City of Toronto’s relationship with the community-based not-for-profit sector. This framework was co-created over...
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Civil society, social economy, the voluntary sector, the third sector, the nonprofit sector, the charitable sector… These are some of the terms used to describe nonprofit organizations collectively, yet these names don’t fully capture all that the sector is and does in serving communities. The nonprofit sector in Canada is one of the fastest growing sectors in the Canadian economy. Virtually every Canadian is connected...
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