Readout: Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector – June 22, 2020

The Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector (ACCS) held a virtual meeting on June 22, 2020. At this meeting, the ACCS members focused on identifying the priority areas that the committee will work on.

Mr. Gabriel Bourget, Special Assistant from the Minister of National Revenue’s Office, attended the meeting on behalf of the Honourable Diane Lebouthillier and represented her interest in the work of this committee.

The ACCS co-chairs, Mr. Bruce MacDonald, Ms. Hilary Pearson, and Mr. Geoff Trueman welcomed and thanked the members for meeting virtually. Mr. Trueman opened the meeting with some welcoming remarks and introduced Ms. Kim Fuller, an external facilitator.

The ACCS members participated in virtual breakout sessions, facilitated by Ms. Fuller, in a continuation of a priority identification exercise they had completed before the meeting. Through these sessions and a large group discussion, the ACCS confirmed the charity-related regulatory and legislative issues on which it will focus in the coming months.

Five working groups were identified, which will examine the following priorities:

1. Modernizing the regulatory framework in Government as it relates to the charitable sector;
2. Supporting the work of charities serving vulnerable populations;
3. Exploring charity-related regulatory and legislative issues faced by Indigenous Peoples and organizations;
4. Examining the regulatory approach to charitable purposes and activities, including its impact on charities working with non qualified donees, and charities engaging in revenue-earning activities; and
5. Improving data collection and analysis related to the charitable sector.

The ACCS members also expressed support for the broader efforts of the charitable sector to meet emergency funding and infrastructural needs, and explored the idea of backing these initiatives.

The working groups will meet in the next few weeks to establish their plans and timelines for further work to advance their areas of priority. The ACCS will meet again as a whole in the fall.