December 2019
We addressed the Standing Committee on Finance, and thanked the Provincial Government for their commitment to modernizing co-operative legislation as detailed in Bill 138.
November 2019
The Provincial Government's Fall Economic Statement announced their commitment to modernizing co-operative legislation - a big win for the sector! The improvements in legislation would eliminate the requirement to do 50% of business with members, enabling co-operatives to compete and innovate on a level playing field with all businesses in Ontario. The updates to audit rules would help reduce administrative burdens on community-owned co-operatives and allow their income to fund increased services.
June 2019
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) was officially delegated authority by the Minister of Finance to oversee the capital raising requirements for co-operative corporations in Ontario, which included receiving and reviewing offering statements for co-operative corporations.
April 2019
We were invited to sit in on the provincial budget lock-up and review the 2019 Ontario Budget. It was very positive that the co-operative sector was included in the budget, and that one of our staff was quoted in it (see below - Section D: Open for Business, Open for Jobs, page 235)! While the changes to the legislation that we had advocated for throughout the January consultation process were not included, the government announced its commitment to consider the feedback from Ontario co-operatives received through the consultation process, and work with our sector to propose amendments to the legislation.
March 2019
The Ministry of Finance confirmed that the government is not going to proceed with any plan to move responsibility of co-operative Offering Statements to the OSC, but rather, to the FSRA. They noted that our proposed Offering Statement limit increases were still under consideration. They also confirmed that the government will be going ahead with changes to the 50% Rule and the Audit exemptions, but had not decided whether these changes will be in the budget bill, or whether they will wait and make all of the changes at once; they were “leaning toward no” on changes in this budget.
February 2019
After many years of advocacy on the part of the co-operative sector, the Provincial Government completed its consultations with the co-operative sector on the Co-operative Corporations Act. The Ministry of Finance (MoF) invited us and (25) representatives from the co-operative sector to a meeting with their staff, as well as the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services and Service Canada, to discuss the (85) submissions made by co-operatives to the consultation process. With regards to our Offering Statement asks, a possible move to the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) to oversee Offering Statements was noted. All co-operatives in Ontario that had offering statements highlighted the issues with a move to OSC, and the negative impact it will have on a co-operative's ability to raise capital. Prior to the meeting, we coordinated a phone conference with these co-operatives to discuss the impact, which resulted in drafting individual letters to the MoF, outlining their issues with moving to the OSC, and the challenges this would cause. We also drafted a response letter and included the input from all the co-operatives. The participating co-operatives were provided speaking notes on the issue which they used to contact their MPPs. The Ministry followed up by suggesting a meeting with those co-operatives to pose clarifying questions.
