Submitted by Section Secretary Treasurer, Elizabeth Moxham
Summary of Meetings
Number of Meetings Held: 5
September 25, 2014
Guest Speakers:
Michael Blatchford, Bull, Housser & Tupper LLP
Kate Bake-Paterson, Davis LLP
Luke Johnson, De Jager Volkenant & Co
Robert Pakrul, Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP - Robert W. Pakrul Professional Law Corp
Laura Berezan, Fleming & Associates, Barristers & Solicitors
Ken Volkenant, De Jager Volkenant & Co
Meeting Title/Topic: An Update and Roundtable Discussion on the new Societies Act Whitepaper (BC Ministry of Finance)
Synopsis: The discussion was led by the Section’s Society Act Task Force whose mandate was to review, discuss and prepare a written submission on the White Paper by the October 15 deadline. The task force commented that there has been widespread interest in the proposed changes given the wide variety of size, composition and interest of charities and not-for-profit organizations that exist.
October 23, 2014
Guest Speakers: Paul Hancock, Access and Privacy Manager, University of British Columbia and Ryan Berger, Partner, Dispute Resolution and Litigation Group, BHT
Meeting Title/Topic: Access and Privacy for Charities and Not-for-Profits
Synopsis: In this session, Ryan and Paul provided an overview of the access-to-information and privacy legislation as it applies to charities and not-for-profit organizations in BC. They highlighted issues and hot topics in this area that pertain to societies and public sector organizations.
March 26, 2015
Guest Speaker: Robert Pakrul, Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP
Meeting Title/Topic: Selected Issues in Non-Profit Governance
Synopsis: Bob spoke about the top governance issues for charities and non profit organizations.
May 21, 2015
Guest Speakers: Calvin Fong, DIrector, Vancouver Foundation, Nicole Watson, Senior Manager - Tax, KPMG Enterprise, and Laura West, Partner - Bull Housser & Tupper LLP
Meeting Title/Topic: Estate Donations - The Good, The Bad and The Unknown for 2016
Synopsis: This was a joint meeting of the CBA Charities and Not-for-Profit Law Section and the Canadian Association of Gift Planners. In the 2014 Federal Budget, there were a number of changes proposed to the Income Tax Act relating to charitable gifts by will and estate plans. These changes are set to come into effect on January 1, 2016. One of those changes was to allow a charitable donation under a will and the resulting donation tax credit to be allocated between the deceased and their estate in certain circumstances. However there are a number of potential problems created by the changes. This presentation highlighted the planning and income tax issues that will arise from the proposed changes, the effect on current wills, trusts, planned gifts and estate plans, and what charities should do to bring attention to their donors on these changes.
June 9, 2015
Guest Speakers: Kate Bake-Paterson, DLA Piper (Canada) LLP, Michael Blatchford, Bull Housser Tupper LLP, Elizabeth Moxham, University of British Columbia and Kathryn Chan, University of Victoria - Faculty of Law
Meeting Title/Topic: Year-End Charity Review
Synopsis: The Section Executive Officers provided a year-end round-up, including a discussion of the Societies Act Bill 24, the CBA Charities Symposium (which takes place May 29), and an update on the Budget. We will held the election for executive positions.
Comments and Observations of the Chair
This year we held less meetings than in previous years, due to difficulty in finding expert speakers who have not already spoken to the section 2 or 3 times previously. In the coming year, we hope to be able to bring in one or more expert speakers from other provinces and will look to CBA to support us as much as possible in this endeavor We have reached out to several suitable speakers on topics of interest to the section. Also, after several years of trying, our section and its executive succeeded in planning and holding a joint event with the Canadian Association of Gift Planners – Vancouver Roundtable. The joint meeting was a panel discussion held over breakfast on May 21 and was very successful. We plan to make this collaborative meeting an annual custom and are planning together for spring 2016.