{"id":4787,"date":"2025-01-24T12:02:36","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T17:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/?p=4787"},"modified":"2025-05-02T11:04:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T15:04:53","slug":"bob-wyatt-on-how-increased-transparency-could-strengthen-our-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/2025\/bob-wyatt-on-how-increased-transparency-could-strengthen-our-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Wyatt on How Increased Transparency Could Strengthen Our Sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Bob Wyatt on How Increased Transparency Could Strengthen Our Sector\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-we-dont-know-does-hurt-us-possible-changes-to-laws-related-to-charities\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">What We Don\u2019t Know Does Hurt Us: Possible Changes to Laws Related to Charities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pemselfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/What-We-Dont-Know-Does-Hurt-Us.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panl\/wp-content\/uploads\/What-We-Dont-Know-Does-Hurt-Us-By-Bob-Wyatt-2024Cover-300x357.png\" alt=\"Cover of Bob Wyatt's paper, What We Don't Know Does Hurt Us.\" class=\"wp-image-9342\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Charity law in Canada innovates at a glacial pace, but reform is essential to address modern problems in our sector. We can&#8217;t rely on the 400-year-old Statute of Elizabeth 1601 to address 21st-century issues. To further a reform process, we must have a better understanding of what&#8217;s happening now, but that\u2019s not possible with the existing rules of confidentiality at Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). For instance, while 77% of charity applications were approved by CRA in 2022-23, we have zero visibility into why the other 23% didn&#8217;t succeed. Is this level of secrecy still serving the public interest?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Something needs to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an essay, \u201cWhat We Don\u2019t Know Does Hurt Us,\u201d for the Pemsel Case Foundation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bob-wyatt-4148699\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bob Wyatt<\/a>, CEO of the Muttart Foundation and MPNL alum, provides compelling arguments for how increased transparency could strengthen the sector. He looks at what could change in terms of Registration and Compliance within the Charities Directorate, a group within CRA, and what could change in the Appeals Branch of CRA, including whether CRA\u2019s requirement for secrecy should be waived in certain cases when CRA itself is accused of improper behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Click here for the 17-page pdf: <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/panl\/wp-content\/uploads\/What-We-Dont-Know-Does-Hurt-Us-By-Bob-Wyatt-2024.pdf\">What We Don\u2019t Know Does Hurt Us, By Bob Wyatt, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\"><div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/hdJ0J5\">Sign up for PANL Perspectives, MPNL\u2019s free newsletter.<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p><em>Banner photo is courtesy of Michel Rathwell.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What We Don\u2019t Know Does Hurt Us: Possible Changes to Laws Related to Charities Charity law in Canada innovates at a glacial pace, but reform is essential to address modern problems in our sector. We can&#8217;t rely on the 400-year-old Statute of Elizabeth 1601 to address 21st-century issues. To further a reform process, we must [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[752,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4787"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4794,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4787\/revisions\/4794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mpnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}