PREPARED BY:
Finance Department
DATE:
September 15, 2022
SUBJECT:
Registered Charity Status
BACKGROUND/PURPOSE
On July 14, 2022, Administration for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) brought forward a recommendation to the Board of Health to support an application for charitable status for the WECHU. The recommendation to move forward with registering as a charity was approved and Administration asked to report back to the Board on whether other public health units in Ontario are registered as a charity under Section 149 of the Income Tax Act.
DISCUSSION
Of the thirty-four (34) public health units in Ontario, ten (10) are registered charities. The effective date of their charitable status is prior to 2012. They include:
- Board of Health for the Peterborough County – City Health Unit
- Board of Health for the Algoma Health Unit
- Brant County Health Unit
- Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Health Unit Charitable Organization
- Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit
- Middlesex-London Health Unit
- North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit
- Northwestern Health Unit
- Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit
- Eastern Ontario Health Unit
In 2012, there were amendments to the Income Tax Act, allowing municipalities, and municipal and public bodies performing a function of government in Canada, to apply for qualified donee status. As a qualified donee, these entities would be eligible to issue official donation receipts, to receive gifts from registered charities, have the ability to apply for rebates (i.e. property taxes), and access other grant opportunities. Of the thirty-four (34) public health units in Ontario, the Board of Health for Oxford Elgin St. Thomas Health Unit, is the only public health unit with qualified donee status. Locally, the following public sector entities have the qualified donee status:
- City of Windsor
- County of Essex
- Townships of Essex, LaSalle, Leamington, Lakeshore, Tecumseh, Amherstburg, and Pelee
- Caldwell First Nation
- Windsor Essex Community Housing Corporation
- John McGivney Children’s Centre School Authority