Posts by Brian Iler

The growth of community-owned green energy in Canada

September 27th, 2012 by Brian Iler

Community power was given a boost this summer with the release of the second round of Nova Scotia’s Community Feed-In Tariff (COMFIT) projects on July 9, 2012 and Ontario’s FIT 2.0 Program Rules on August 10, 2012.

Until now, ownership and participation in Canada’s growing green energy sector has been dominated by private sector interests. It looks like things may be starting to change.

Read more on rabble.ca

The Butterfly Effect: How a single wind turbine led to Ontario’s Green Energy Act

September 11th, 2012 by Brian Iler

Great post at David Dodge’s Green Energy Futures about WindShare, TREC and the community power movement in Ontario.  The whole green Energy Futures series is worth a look.

Check it out.

What’s Wrong with the New Ontario Not for Profit Corporations Act

September 10th, 2012 by Brian Iler

While Ontario’s non‑profit law sorely needs updating, the Ontario government’s recent initiative to do so has resulted in a deeply flawed replacement.

In drafting the new ONCA, the government prioritized two objectives:

  • Ensuring it closely mirrors the law applicable to businesses
  • Empowering members to participate more fully in a corporation’s activities.

While there’s much to modernize about non‑profit corporate law, the introduction of many business law concepts was not tempered by the differing realities of the non‑profit world.

Couple that with a highly legalistic drafting style, the new Act will be inaccessible for many, and  force many less sophisticated non‑profits to seek more legal advice than they might have in the past.

The result: an Act that is certainly not responsive to, or knowledgeable about, the sector.

Continue reading “What’s Wrong with the New Ontario Not for Profit Corporations Act”

New Ontario Not-for-Profit Act Update

May 25th, 2012 by Brian Iler

From Wednesday’s Ministry advisory committee meeting:

  • Target proclamation date is January 1, 2013.
  • Incorporation will be available on line and instant – This is great news. The current process involves weeks long waiting periods.
  • A Guide to the new Act, transition checklist and default bylaw will be available this summer. (We’ve had substantial input into the drafting of these.)

We’ll keep you updated with new news as we hear it.

Policing at the G20: Brian’s Letter to the Mayor

June 30th, 2010 by Brian Iler

David, I want to let you know my concerns regarding the police actions last weekend.

While the police have a difficult job to do, there were clearly decisions as to how policing would be handled at the highest level that demand answers: This is not about individual officers’ misdeeds, although there was ample evidence of those.

Continue reading “Policing at the G20: Brian’s Letter to the Mayor”

Proposed New Ontario Non-profit Corporations Act

June 9th, 2010 by Brian Iler

On May 12, the Ontario Government released its first draft of legislation to replace the existing Corporations Act, for non-profit corporations. This will affect most non-profits (some are incorporated federally), but will not affect co-operatives (whether non-profit or not).

Continue reading “Proposed New Ontario Non-profit Corporations Act”