Bruce Trail Conservancy (BTC) Members are invited to participate in one of two virtual Town Hall meetings to review and discuss draft changes to BTC By-laws before they are brought to the BTC Annual Meeting in October 2023 for approval by the membership.

BTC Members: Please check your inbox or mailbox for our letter to members on this, sent Feb. 8, 2023, and a follow up email, sent Feb. 14, 2023.

These Town Hall meetings (via Zoom Webinar) will be hosted by Board Chair Leah Myers and members of our Board’s Governance Committee. We will be joined by our legal counsel as well as our CEO Michael McDonald. These sessions will offer members an opportunity to provide feedback and for us to answer any questions you may have on the proposed new By-laws and the related Articles of Amendment and Special Resolutions.

We invite you to register for one of the two virtual Town Hall meetings:

Your Registration Confirmation:

Since these Town Halls are for BTC members only, your registration confirmation & Zoom webinar link will be sent after your membership has been verified. Please allow 2 business days for this. Once your membership is verified, you’ll receive an email confirmation from Bruce Trail Conservancy via no-reply@zoom.us Please check your “Junk” or “Spam” email filters for confirmation emails from the Bruce Trail Conservancy via no-reply@zoom.us.

Background: Transition to ONCA

The new Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010 (the ONCA) was proclaimed into force effective October 19, 2021. The ONCA replaced the Ontario Corporations Act, the corporate legislation which previously applied to Ontario corporations without share capital such as the BTC. The ONCA applies automatically to all Ontario non-share capital corporations (which are now called not-for-profit corporations), including BTC, as of October 19, 2021.

The BTC has three years to transition under the ONCA.  After this transition period has expired, all non-conforming provisions in the BTC’s governing documents, including its By-laws and its Letters Patent, will be deemed to have been amended to conform with the ONCA.  

Although there is no formal requirement to amend by-laws or file articles of amendment under the ONCA, if the BTC does not do so, its governing documents may not reflect the actual rules of governance that apply to it.

Review of BTC By-laws

The BTC Board of Directors has engaged legal counsel with expertise in not-for-profit governance to prepare new, more ‘plain language’ By-laws to achieve compliance with the ONCA, rather than amending BTC’s current By-laws. The changes are intended to make the BTC By-laws easier to understand and follow, while being guided by the language of the ONCA and streamline BTC’s governance processes and procedures.

With the feedback from members through the Town Hall meetings, the Board hopes to finalize the draft By-laws and related Articles of Amendment and Special Resolutions and recommend them to the Membership, to be voted on at the BTC Annual Meeting on October 14, 2023. Consistent with our current By-laws, the proposed new By-laws will be shared with the entire Membership through the summer issue of Bruce Trail Conservancy Magazine which will be available in June.

Please send any questions you may have about the process to board@brucetrail.org.