Founding Board Recruitment – Project Visitor Access
STATUS: The organization is preparing to incorporate as a numbered federal not-for-profit corporation in Ontario. No candidate is represented as a director until they have consented and the corporation has been lawfully formed. The permanent public brand is not yet cleared.
About Project Visitor Access
Project Visitor Access is recruiting a founding volunteer Board of Directors for a new federal not-for-profit being organized in Toronto. The project is building a 2027 pilot designed to make short-duration international travel to Canada accessible to people whose household purchasing power would ordinarily exclude them from Canadian tourism. The initial operating model supports 100 visitors from Jamaica to Ontario and 100 visitors from Morocco to Quebec, while Canadian suppliers are paid full contracted value through sponsor capital and regulated travel/payment structures.
The founding board will govern incorporation, financial controls, participant protection, privacy, regulated travel procurement, accessibility, insurance, evaluation and bilateral community partnerships. Sponsors will not be permitted to select individual participants, and the organization will not promise visas, immigration outcomes or charitable tax receipts.
| Item | Posting Detail |
|---|---|
| Organization stage | Pre-incorporation. A numbered federal NFP is planned under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act. |
| Location | Toronto / Ontario. Board work will be primarily virtual, with occasional Toronto-area meetings where useful. |
| Volunteer status | Unpaid governance role. Reasonable approved expenses may be reimbursed after incorporation and policy adoption. |
| Time commitment | Approximately 4–6 hours per month in the first year, including board/committee preparation. Founding months may be heavier around incorporation and policy adoption. |
| Meetings | Target: one board meeting every 6–8 weeks during buildout, plus committee work. Cadence may reduce after launch systems stabilize. |
| Term | Founding service through incorporation and the first annual meeting, with anticipated elected terms of up to two years afterward, subject to adopted by-laws. |
| Target board | Five directors. At least three should be independent of management; conflicts and related-party interests must be disclosed. |
| Priority review | Applications received by 15 October 2026 will receive priority review. Recruitment may remain open until the skills matrix is complete. |
| How to apply | Email [email protected] with a CV/LinkedIn profile and a short statement (maximum 300 words) identifying the role of interest, relevant governance/sector experience, and any actual or potential conflicts. |
What all directors will do
- Exercise fiduciary duties to the corporation rather than to a sponsor, employer, community organization or participant group.
- Review and approve strategy, annual budgets, material contracts, risk controls and the conditions for launching or resizing the pilot.
- Maintain strict separation between eligibility verification, participant selection, sponsor influence and immigration decision-making.
- Protect participant financial sustainability: participant contributions are burden-capped and are not relied upon for program solvency.
- Require lawful Ontario/Quebec travel-selling structures, regulated payment flows, insurance, accessibility and documented refund/emergency controls.
- Participate in at least one standing committee: Audit & Risk; Participant Protection & Privacy; or Corridor & Partnerships.
- Disclose conflicts promptly and recuse where required.
Founding role 1 — Independent Chair
Primary purpose: establish disciplined public-interest governance while keeping management, sponsors and participant selection appropriately separated.
| Strong-fit experience | Core responsibilities |
|---|---|
| NFP/charity/public-sector governance; chairing boards or committees; governance law/policy; strategic oversight | Chair board meetings; maintain board workplan; supervise governance calendar; sponsor firewall; board evaluation; ensure decisions are properly documented. |
| Comfort challenging assumptions while keeping an early-stage organization executable | Ensure material risks/gates are resolved before launch; prevent premature commitments or invented approvals. |
| Independent of paid management and major sponsors | Lead conflict/independence review and succession planning. |
Founding role 2 — Finance & Audit Chair
CPA/LPA status is preferred but not mandatory if the candidate has equivalent senior accounting, audit, controllership or nonprofit-finance competence.
| Strong-fit experience | Core responsibilities |
|---|---|
| Public accounting, audit, controllership, restricted funds, grants/sponsorship accounting, NFP financial statements | Chair Audit & Risk; oversee chart of accounts, restricted-fund structure, capital gate and internal controls. |
| Experience engaging external auditors/public accountants | Lead audit/evaluator procurement and annual assurance calendar. |
| Financial risk and treasury controls | Ensure participant travel funds do not become operating liquidity and only secured/drawable capital is counted as funded. |
Founding role 3 — Participant Protection & Privacy Chair
Primary purpose: independently oversee the people-level risks created by financial-need verification, international travel, privacy, accessibility, complaints and appeals.
| Strong-fit experience | Core responsibilities |
|---|---|
| Canadian privacy/data governance, PIPEDA/provincial privacy, cross-border processing, privacy engineering, human-rights/accessibility or complaints/ombuds practice | Chair Participant Protection & Privacy; approve minimum-data architecture, retention, access controls and incident response. |
| Experience with equitable eligibility/appeals or vulnerable-population program design | Ensure verifier ≠ selector, sponsors have no beneficiary control, and contribution hardship appeals are independent. |
| Ability to review cross-border data arrangements | Oversee Jamaica/Morocco origin-side evidence and Morocco CNDP compliance pathway. |
Founding role 4 — Tourism / Travel Operations Director
Primary purpose: make the travel model operationally realistic, consumer-protective and accessible.
| Strong-fit experience | Core responsibilities |
|---|---|
| Travel agency/tour operator, airline groups, destination management, hospitality contracting, travel insurance, consumer travel regulation or large group movement | Review TICO/Quebec seller architecture, supplier contracts, group deposits/name/cancellation deadlines and service standards. |
| Irregular operations / traveller assistance / accessible travel | Review emergency and rebooking protocols; confirm equivalent accessible inventory. |
| Procurement and vendor diligence | Support competitive RFPs for airfare, rooms, meals, ground, attractions and insurance. |
Founding role 5 — Corridor & Community Partnerships Director
Primary purpose: ensure the program builds reciprocal relationships rather than operating as one-way donor-controlled tourism.
| Strong-fit experience | Core responsibilities |
|---|---|
| Diaspora/community organizations, international cultural exchange, newcomer/community programming, bilateral institutions, municipal/cultural partnerships | Chair or support Corridor & Partnerships; review origin/community MOUs; ensure community hosts do not become participant selectors. |
| Experience working across cultures/institutions | Strengthen Jamaica/Ontario and Morocco/Quebec relationships and future reciprocity design. |
| Stakeholder governance | Review partner power, local ownership/retention, and community feedback. |
Selection criteria
- Relevant competence for at least one of the five roles.
- Capacity to exercise independent judgment and read financial/risk/governance materials.
- Comfort with an early-stage organization whose pilot will not launch until regulatory, capital, insurance, accessibility and travel-seller gates are actually closed.
- Willingness to protect participants from financial hardship, donor influence and misleading immigration claims.
- Ability to disclose conflicts and maintain confidentiality.
- Preference for a board that collectively reflects different professional, community and lived perspectives; no individual candidate is expected to represent an entire country, diaspora or identity group.
What candidates should know before applying
This is not a paid travel program, immigration pathway, charity board seat already attached to a registered charity, or symbolic advisory title. It is a legal governance role in a federal NFP being built from the ground up. The first board will be expected to challenge, improve and sometimes stop program actions that do not meet the launch standard.
Questions and applications: Joshua W.J. Brown — [email protected]