Senator Dupuis: I see that Bill S-1001 ensures that the amalgamation of these two corporations meets the requirements of the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act. Do you have any guarantees, or would it be possible to get guarantees, that the requirements of the provincial legislation governing the corporation for the diocese, which falls under provincial law, have been met? I am talking about the requirements to comply with the provincial legislation.

Senator Clement: I had the opportunity to work with the archdiocese’s lawyer and the Senate’s lawyers to prepare for the discussion that was held in committee. I did not get any official guarantees, but that is certainly a point that was raised, and we would like to confirm it in committee.

Thank you for the question.

(On motion of Senator Martin, debate adjourned.)

Senator Coyle: It is not about this particular amalgamation. You have done some research on these sorts of Senate public bills, as well as handling issues such as this. I know that we had the Girl Guides here as well.

Are we expecting that there will be other amalgamations of other dioceses within the Catholic Church that will be coming our way? Is this the only mechanism for that to happen, or might it also be something from other churches?

Senator Clement: Thank you, Senator Coyle, for that question. I am going to lean on Senator Harder, and figure this out — when it goes to committee, hopefully — around how it worked for the United Church of Canada and why it was before the Senate.

This amalgamation needs the Senate for this process, and it really is an amalgamation. The Catholic Church and this archdiocese are taking care to do it this way so that claims remain. They are choosing this process so that the two predecessor corporations are not dissolved. If there are claims, they will continue after the amalgamation.

When I was approached by the archdiocese, they made sure to say that because it is federally incorporated, they needed an act of Parliament to do that. They needed it to be done here, but they were focusing on an amalgamation process. Other dioceses have gone through this process, and there was controversy because of the claims issue, and because the claims would have been affected by the change. This amalgamation is designed to not do that, and to make sure that people have their claims. They are doing it here — in this process — and we will flesh that out, of course, at committee. Thank you.

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