What is the purpose of the ONCA?

The purpose of ONCA is to modernize how not-for-profit corporations are created, operated, governed, and dissolved. Prior to ONCA, Ontario non-profits were governed under standard corporation legislation that did not reflect the way they operate.

As of October 19, 2021, ONCA is in force. ONCA generally applies automatically to all Ontario not-for-profit corporations.

Existing not-for-profit corporations previously governed under the Corporations Act will have a three-year transition from the date ONCA came into force to make any necessary changes to their incorporating and other documents to bring them into conformity with ONCA.

This is an extremely involved and time consuming process. We endeavor to have this transition completed in 2023/2024.

We are currently working with our lawyer to complete the transition. Our current process includes the following:

The lawyer reviews each of our governing documents and meets with the rules and regulations committee to provide or get clarification on items.

The lawyer then begins the task of creating a draft of each document bringing them in line with ONCA. As they are completed they will be passed back to us for review and discussion.

Once the rules and regulations committee has completed their review, they will present the draft document(s) to the board for approval.

As the board approves each new governing document, the ones that require members vote will be presented to the members at the AGM.

The Act now joins other jurisdictions in Canada that have modernized their not-for-profit corporations’ laws.