The CLPOA is a not-for-profit corporation incorporated in Ontario in 1974. The CLPOA Constitution (Letters patent and by-law) is somewhat out-dated and requires re-vamping.
Ontario not-for-profits are currently governed by the Ontario Corporations Act (“OCA”). A new law called the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (“ONCA”) was passed in 2010 but did not come into force at that time as the Ontario bureaucracy needed to update its technology, including a new business registration system. In 2017, with technology still not in place, several of the promised ONCA changes were actually made through amendments to the OCA.
In 2020, there was a risk of the ONCA being nullified owing to automatic repeal provisions in the Legislation Act for public statute provisions unproclaimed for 10 years. To this end, in September 2020, a motion carried in the Ontario legislature granting a further year to bring the ONCA into force (with the exception of 14 provisions which were repealed).
The Ontario government asked not-for-profits to start preparing, which the CLPOA is doing. Because the not-for-profit community was extensively consulted in order to draft the ONCA, the ONCA provides very good guidance to not-for-profits, like the CLPOA, and helps us to re-vamp our old letters patent and by-law. One key element of the ONCA is more member rights.
Here are some reference documents including a glossary of terms:
Ontario Government Guide to the Not-for-Profit Corporations Act
https://www.ontario.ca/page/guide-not-profit-corporations-act-2010
ONCA – Ontario NonProfit Network
https://theonn.ca/our-work/our-regulatory-environment/onca/
Glossary – CLEO
http://nonprofitlaw.cleo.on.ca/publications-and-resources/glossary/
Ontario Corporations Act (currently governs not-for-profits incorporated in Ontario)
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90c38
Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (due to be in force “beyond early 2020”)
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/10n15
CLPOA Constitution (CLPOA’s governing by-law)
https://clpoa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/CLPOA_Constitution_July_6_2019.pdf