New Insolvency Resource Available.

• Date: 01 January 2021
• Author: Broder, Peter

It is sometimes said that there are "too many charities." The logic that drives that observation does not seem to apply in the for-profit realm, where the increase of firms in a particular subsector is more likely to prompt comments about the importance of choice and the value of competition. The COVID-19 pandemic has, if anything, sharpened worries about the disappearance of small business. On the voluntary sector side, some continue to welcome "rationalization". The bigger worry should be about the impact on Canadian's quality of life that significant shrinkage of the sector will have.

Leaving aside theory, the hard fact is that the pandemic and its economic fallout have thrown many organizations into difficult financial straits. Therefore, the number of charities and other voluntary sector groups is likely to drop markedly in 2021 and beyond. Few sector groups had the reserves or other resources to weather the hit to their income caused by the health emergency or had access to additional funding to address spikes in the need for their services stemming from the crisis.

Government relief programs provided some help, but their scope could never be expected to make up the shortfalls faced by the majority of organizations. As the pandemic resurges, the time organizations need to scrape by lengthens, and inevitably more won't be able to make it.

Faced with these realities, the Muttart Foundation, in...