Calling all candidates and Official Agents: what do to if you ran for federal office but your Official Agent failed to do your electoral campaign return on time?

October 19th, 2011 by Paula Boutis

With some regularity, our firm is called upon to assist federal candidates who ran for office, but for one reason or another, their Official Agent failed to file a return, or other required report, on time.  The federal Elections Act has procedures for extending the time to file, but if those are missed too, the only way to file after that is through a court order granting a nunc pro tunc (now for then) order.  That is the order for an act to be done (filing, in this case) after the time has expired.

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The Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act in force as of October 17, 2011

October 18th, 2011 by Iler Campbell LLP

The clock is now ticking.  Federally incorporated non-profit organizations have until October 17, 2014 to make the transition to the new Not-for-profit Corporations Act.  Failure to transition to the new Act means dissolution.

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Registration for Tools Conference 2011 now open!

October 13th, 2011 by Iler Campbell LLP

We’ve just launched our website for Tools 2011 and opened up registrations. Check out www.toolsconference.ca for all the details.

Tools 2011 promises top training opportunities for board, management, staff, community groups and citizen activists in 2011.

For more than a decade between the late 1990s and 2006, Iler Campbell and Prentice Yates and Clark sponsored annual Tools conferences. These were well attended and provided participants with a chance to learn from experts and share vital resources and information.

This year, we’re bringing Tools back. Our goal, as always, is to provide valuable, timely and practical information and training, to further enhance your organization’s effectiveness and help meet your goals. We continue to keep the fee as low as possible, so that cost is not a barrier for any organization.

Oak Ridges Moraine Foundation makes application to the Environmental Commissioner under the Environmental Bill of Rights for review of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act and Plan

October 3rd, 2011 by Paula Boutis

In 2001, the Ontario government passed legislation protecting approximately 190,000 hectares of land known as the Oak Ridges Moraine.  The Moraine is estimated to provide approximately 250,000 people with clean drinking water.  It forms the headwaters of 65 streams flowing south the Lake Ontario and north to Lake Simcoe, Lake Scugog, Rice Lake and Georgian Bay.1

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Consultations on Approvals for the New Nuclear Plants at Darlington: what have we learned so far?

September 19th, 2011 by Iler Campbell LLP

Construction of new nuclear plants at Darlington has been a controversial issue for the past five years and only more so after the tragic meltdown at Fukushima, Japan. The handling of the various consultation processes for the Darlington nuclear approvals has been an extremely complex, fascinating and frustrating odyssey thus far. It highlights some of the flaws and limitations in public consultations for environmental approvals processes for massive infrastructure projects involving expenditures of billions of dollars. This article provides a brief summary of some of the main public policy developments and related approvals processes to date and explores some of the lessons we have learned so far.

Read more (pdf).

Signing a commercial lease? Make sure you know exactly what you are getting into

September 6th, 2011 by Ted Hyland

Charities, non-profits and co-operatives often enter into commercial lease agreements without having first consulted with a lawyer.  By the time they arrive at our offices at Iler Campbell with a signed 50 or 60 page standard lease agreement (sometimes years after signing it) they often have made commitments that will have serious implications for their organizations, creating problems that likely could have been avoided if they had checked with a lawyer first.

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