Policy priority: Home in Government
Despite being a critical pillar of the Canadian economy, the nonprofit sector is not consistently understood, valued, or engaged as a strategic partner by the federal government.
Canada’s charitable and nonprofit sector is essential to economic resilience, social cohesion, service delivery, democratic participation, and public policy implementation. Despite this, the federal government doesn’t consistently understand, value, or engage our sector as a strategic partner. Federal policy, funding, procurement, workforce, and regulatory decisions are often made without a full appreciation of the sector’s scale, productivity, constraints, and public value.
- Each year, the nonprofit sector contributes $244.2 billion to Canada's economy, representing 8.4% of the country’s GDP.
- The nonprofit sector is also one of the largest employers, with over 2.9 million workers. In addition, 13 million volunteers dedicate nearly 1.2 billion hours annually - equivalent to 714,000 full-time jobs.
- Our public opinion polling shows that a strong majority of all Canadians (79%) believe that nonprofit services are essential to the well-being of citizens in their local communities.
We recommend that the federal government strengthen its relationship with the nonprofit sector by:
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Ensuring nonprofit sector representation on relevant federal advisory bodies, including those focused on economic growth, workforce development, digital transformation, and regulatory modernization.
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Meaningfully engaging with the nonprofit sector and relevant actors on the consultation to modernize the framework for the charitable sector
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Engaging the nonprofit sector in the renewal of the Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector to ensure it can continue to provide effective, ongoing advice.
(Imagine Canada, 2026)
(Imagine Canada, 2025)
(Imagine Canada, 2023)
(Imagine Canada, 2023)
(Imagine Canada, 2023)
(Imagine Canada, 2022)
Chronicle Herald, 2021
(Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector, 2021) recommendation 3.
(Imagine Canada, 2019)
(Imagine Canada, 2019)
(Special Senate Committee on the Charitable Sector, 2019) - recommendations 20, 21 and 22.