WATERLOO REGION – Canada’s charities need a national volunteerism strategy and regulatory changes at the federal level to help them continue to thrive, a leading co-author of a Senate report told top non-profit leaders in Cambridge Thursday.
“The charitable sector is vitally important to our lives, to our communities, in fact to our nation,” Sen. Ratna Omidvar told an audience in Cambridge Thursday to kick off Capacity Canada’s three-day Manulife Board Governance BootCamp.
This BootCamp, the largest since the first was held 11 years ago, is underway with about 100 participants from non-profits at the Cambridge Hotel and Conference Centre.
Canada’s charitable sector contributes more than $150 billion a year to the economy, representing eight per cent of the national gross domestic product.
“Yet the sector and its work is so deeply embedded in our daily lives, it is so prevalent, it is so essential, it is so pervasive, that it has interestingly enough become invisible,” said Sen. Omidvar, co-author of a Special Senate Committee report on the non-profit sector released earlier this year.
The Senate report, called Catalyst for Change: A Roadmap to a Stronger Charitable Sector, was the first such study on Parliament Hill on Canada’s charitable sector and outlined 42 recommendations for change. The report stemmed from 24 public hearings, more than 160 witness submissions and online responses from 770 sector organizations.
Canada’s 170,000 charities and not-for-profits “are the glue that holds us all together,” she said. “Yet it doesn’t register, that two million Canadians work in the sector.”
A national volunteerism strategy could help build on more than two billion hours of work already contributed by volunteers each year, according to Statistics Canada. “It would help respond to the new age challenges of recruiting and retaining and training volunteers.”
Also regulatory changes are badly needed to give charities far more flexibility.
Senator Omidvar is an internationally recognized voice on migration, diversity and inclusion. She came to Canada from Iran in 1981 and her own experiences of displacement, integration and citizen engagement have been the foundation of her work.
In April 2016, she was appointed to the Senate of Canada as an independent senator representing Ontario. As a member of the Senate’s Independent Senators Group she holds a leadership position as Scroll Manager. Senator Omidvar also served as Deputy Chair of the Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector.
Senator Omidvar is a Councillor on the World Refugee Council, a Director at the Samara Centre for Democracy and Chair Emerita for the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council.
Previously at Ryerson University, Senator Omidvar was a Distinguished Visiting Professor and founded the Global Diversity Exchange, a think-and-do tank on diversity, migration and inclusion. Prior to her appointments at Ryerson, Senator Omidvar was the President of Maytree, where she played a lead role in local, national and international efforts to promote the integration of immigrants.
She is co-author of Flight and Freedom: Stories of Escape to Canada (2015), an Open Book Toronto best book of 2015 and one of the Toronto Star’s top five good reads from Word on the Street. She is also a contributor to The Harper Factor (2016) and co-editor of Five Good Ideas: Practical Strategies for Non-Profit Success (2011). Senator Omidvar received a Honorary Degree, Doctor of Laws, from Ryerson University in 2018 and from York University in 2012.
Senator Omidvar was appointed to the Order of Ontario in 2005 and became a Member of the Order of Canada in 2011, with both honours recognizing her advocacy work on behalf of immigrants and devotion to reducing inequality in Canada. In 2014, she received the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of her contribution to the advancement of German-Canadian relations.
Capacity Canada has held Board Governance BootCamps since 2009 to help board leaders and top administrators better understand their roles in the operation of charitable non-profits. Capacity has hosted BootCamps in Hamilton, ON, St. John’s, NL, and in Fort McMurray, AB.
For more on this Capacity Canada initiative or other programs, please visit capacitycanada.ca.
Contact:
Cathy Brothers, CEO
Capacity Canada
[email protected]
Office: 519-513-2606 x1
Mobile: 226-808-7220
Capacity Canada is a national registered charity that brings together the ideas, people and resources that fuel social innovation. Our vision is to change lives through courageous community organizations. We are accomplishing this by providing non-profit leaders new resources and professional support that enhances leadership skills, stimulates cross-sector collaboration, promotes knowledge sharing, and encourages social innovation.
