SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, ETHICAL CONDUCT, STANDING ORDERS AND PRIVATE BILLS
2011 Legislative Session: Fourth Session, 39th Parliament
SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, ETHICAL CONDUCT, STANDING ORDERS AND PRIVATE BILLS
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SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, ETHICAL CONDUCT, STANDING ORDERS AND PRIVATE BILLS |
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Tuesday, November 22, 2011
3:00 p.m.
Douglas Fir Committee Room
Parliament Buildings, Victoria, B.C.
Meeting: 3:00 p.m., November 22, 2011
Location: Douglas Fir Room, Parliament Buildings, Victoria, BC
Present: MLAs Penner, Coell, Les, Barnett, Hawes, Letnick, and Lali
Appearing: Gospel Riders Motorcycle Ministries
Luke A. Johnson, Agent
Business: Organization.
Resolved on the motion of Mr. Lali, that Mr. Penner be appointed Chair of the Committee.
Resolved on the motion of Mr. Les, that Mr. Lali be appointed Vice-Chair of the Committee.
Ian Izard, Q.C., Law Clerk, reported to the Committee with respect to the Private Bill anticipated for the Committee.
Business: Private Bill Pr 401.
Resolved on the motion of Mr. Hawes, seconded by Mr. Lali, that the Committee recommend to the House that Bill (Pr 401) Gospel Riders Motorcycle Ministries (Corporate Restoration) Act, 2011 proceed to second reading.
The meeting adjourned.
The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.
The printed version remains the official version.
REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)
select standing committee on
Parliamentary Reform, Ethical Conduct, Standing Orders and Private Bills
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Issue No. 3
ISSN 1703-2482
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contents |
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Page |
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Election of Chair and Deputy Chair |
15 |
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Bill Pr401 — Gospel Riders Motorcycle Ministries (Corporate Restoration) Act, 2011 |
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L. Johnson |
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Chair: |
* Barry Penner (Chilliwack-Hope BC Liberal) |
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Deputy Chair: |
* Harry Lali (Fraser-Nicola NDP) |
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Members: |
* Donna Barnett (Cariboo-Chilcotin BC Liberal) |
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* Murray Coell (Saanich North and the Islands BC Liberal) |
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* Randy Hawes (Abbotsford-Mission BC Liberal) |
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* John Les (Chilliwack BC Liberal) |
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* Norm Letnick (Kelowna–Lake Country BC Liberal) |
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Jagrup Brar (Surrey-Fleetwood NDP) |
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Mike Farnworth (Port Coquitlam NDP) |
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Jenny Wai Ching Kwan (Vancouver–Mount Pleasant NDP) |
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* denotes member present |
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Clerks: |
Ian Izard |
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Kate Ryan-Lloyd |
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Witness: |
Luke A. Johnson (Agent, Gospel Riders Motorcycle Ministries) |
[ Page 15 ]
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2011
The committee met at 3:03 p.m.
Election of Chair and Deputy Chair
B. Penner (Convener): The first order of business. We need to call for nominations for the Chair.
Interjection.
B. Penner (Convener): I see a motion from Mr. Lali. Can you just restate that, Mr. Lali, for the record?
H. Lali: The member for Chilliwack-Hope — I would like to nominate him for Chair.
Motion approved.
[B. Penner in the chair.]
B. Penner (Chair): Next, we need to call for a motion to nominate a vice-chair for this committee.
J. Les: I vote for Harry Lali, the member for Fraser-Nicola.
B. Penner (Chair): So moved.
Harry, are you opposed?
H. Lali: Oh, heck no.
Motion approved.
Interjections.
B. Penner (Chair): Order, Members. Order.
The Clerk, at this point, would like to report on our business for this session.
Bill Pr401 — Gospel Riders
Motorcycle Ministries
(Corporate Restoration) Act, 2011
I. Izard (Law Clerk): We've had three applications for private bills. Two of them were resolved. One turned into a government bill because the complexity of the issue could only be dealt with by a government bill. It had to do with an educational institute.
In this particular case — this is the third one — we have an application before us to restore a society to the register after ten years of having been struck off. Mr. Luke Johnson is here to present the application.
B. Penner (Chair): Mr. Johnson, would you like to introduce yourself for the committee?
L. Johnson: Yes. My name is Luke Johnson. I'm a lawyer with a firm called De Jager Volkenant in Surrey B.C. I'm here as counsel for Gospel Riders Motorcycle Ministries, the applicant on this private bill.
I was hoping to have a director of the society with me here today, but he wasn't able to attend. I'll just quickly summarize the situation — how they came to this place and the process that we've gone through to resolve their issue.
This society operates as a registered charity. They provide Christian education, evangelism and fellowship to people in the motorcycle community. They hold Bible studies and church services, distribute literature and conduct evangelism at biker events. It's a small organization. They have volunteer directors and no paid staff. They're based in Coquitlam, in Diane Thorne's riding. She was the MLA that sponsored this bill.
They were incorporated in British Columbia in 1989 under the Society Act, and they duly filed their annual reports for about five years. They stopped in 1994 and were struck from the registry in 1997 for failure to file. It's not entirely clear why they stopped filing. They don't remember at this point. But the treasurer left their organization in about 1994 and probably it was just lost in the shuffle of transitioning to a different person.
The private act here would restore the corporate registration of the society after they've filed the outstanding 16 years of annual reports. If the society had been struck for less than ten years, they could have been restored through an administrative process with the registry or a court order, but a private bill is required after ten years.
They have been unaware of the filing requirements for these 15 or 16 years and did not know that the society had been struck. They continued to carry on their charitable activities. They followed the bylaws and had elections every year. They realized about a year or two ago that they were no longer an incorporated society and approached us to assist with the restoration.
Restoration will allow the society to carry on its work as an incorporated entity. They have minimal assets, and they have no real estate, so there are no escheat issues arising here. They don't have any property that would have reverted to the Crown upon the dissolution. They have no outstanding debts. No one is prejudiced by the restoration. They have no employees or other obligations, particularly.
They are registered as a charity with the Canada Revenue Agency. They've operated as a registered charity since 1989. They are in good standing as a charity. They've filed their annual charity returns. They've continued to issue tax receipts for charitable donations since incorporation.
Charities that are incorporated are obligated to maintain their incorporated status, which is the reason the society has gone to the trouble of applying for this restoration rather than simply starting a new organization.
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They have been issuing charitable receipts for the last 15 years in the name of this society and feel an obligation to rectify that from the CRA's point of view.
This restoration is retroactive, so after they've filed their annual reports, they'll be restored back to the time when they were struck off the registry which, from CRA's point of view, will regularize the last 16 years of charitable receipts.
This application process has required substantial time and expense for the society, and they're now aware of the filing requirements. They're not likely to forget to follow these obligations after this.
Those are my submissions, subject to any questions you have.
B. Penner (Chair): Thank you for that presentation. I do have a question, but it is actually likely to be directed to Mr. Izard, who is one of the Clerks sitting next to me, because it is a question I was just asked by some members of the media in the hallway, asking about this meeting.
The repeal of the Company Act, I think, has led to a reduced incidence of such applications to a committee like this.
I. Izard (Law Clerk): Not really.
B. Penner (Chair): No? It seems like we don't do this as often as we used to — restoring companies that have been struck from the registry.
I. Izard (Law Clerk): No, this is a society. We no longer have applications from companies.
B. Penner (Chair): As a result of the repeal of the Company Act — correct?
I. Izard (Law Clerk): That's right. But the Company Act sections which deal with societies have not been repealed. They still apply.
B. Penner (Chair): So the Legislature only did a partial fix.
I. Izard (Law Clerk): That's right. But I think there are some policy reasons, which I don't want to get into, that societies may be slightly different from companies.
B. Penner (Chair): So it's not just my imagination, or the imagination of the members of the media, that we don't do this as often as we used to. It used to be more common.
D. Barnett: I have a question. Financial statements for the last 15 years?
L. Johnson: Societies are no longer required to file their financial statements. They have prepared them because they're obligated to prepare them to provide for the CRA returns. So they do have annual financial statements. They have fairly minimal income — between $5,000 to $10,000 of income each year. It's not a complex organization, but they do have those documents.
D. Barnett: You mentioned charitable receipts.
L. Johnson: Yes. They provide charitable receipts for donations to the organization.
D. Barnett: And they do show in the financial statements that they have made?
L. Johnson: Yes. Essentially all of their income comes from individual donors making receiptable donations to the organization.
R. Hawes: I move that the bill be referred to the Legislature to proceed.
H. Lali (Deputy Chair): Seconded.
B. Penner (Chair): Oh, the member did not read the motion.
Member, were you intending to move that: "Be it resolved" — the motion of Mr. Hawes, seconded by Mr. Lali — "that the committee recommend to the House that Bill Pr401, Gospel Riders Motorcycle Ministries (Corporate Restoration) Act, 2011, proceed to second reading"?
R. Hawes: That would be the one.
B. Penner (Chair): I thought that's what I heard you say.
Motion approved.
B. Penner (Chair): Just for the sake of transparency, I should reveal that I believe my wife's father has occasionally ridden with the Gospel Riders.
Interjection.
B. Penner (Chair): I did not vote.
At this point I'd look for a motion to adjourn, unless there is any other business. Mr. Letnick, and it looks like Donna Barnett is concurring.
The committee adjourned at 3:13 p.m.
Copyright © 2011: British Columbia Hansard Services, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada