Canada’s political parties are ignoring the recommendations of the Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector

Author Brennan Doherty
The committee made 42 different recommendations to remove regulations and improve Canada’s charitable and non-profit sector. Almost none of them are in campaign platforms this fall.

Why It Matters

Professionals, lawyers, and academics who spoke to the Committee believe Canada’s social impact sector is too cumbersome to adequately serve the needs of the country. Improving it will require tremendous government effort.

After years of consultations, the Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector published a report in 2019 detailing all the ways Canada’s government could improve its regulations, practices, and procedures to strengthen non-profits and charities.

Very few party leaders running for office this fall seem to care.

A total of three of the report’s 42 recommendations were mentioned directly in any party’s platform. Three others were indirectly addressed, and a total of 36 recommendations were not addressed by any party. 

The Liberals are promising to expand borrower eligibility for the Canada Small Business Financing Program to non-profit and charitable social enterprises, while the Conservatives are promising to reform the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)’s “direction and control” regulations”, bump the annual disbursement quota up to 7.5 percent, and g

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