Co-operative Corporations Act
The Co-operative Corporations Act regulates all Ontario co-operatives, including non-profit housing co-operatives. Of particular interest to Schedule 2 housing providers and their service managers are sections 171.1 to 171.25 of the Act, which apply specifically to non-profit housing co-operatives (defined in section 1 as “a co-operative, without share capital, the articles of which provide that the co-operative is a non-profit housing co-operative”). These sections prohibit a non-profit housing co-operative from being converted into any other kind of co-operative or corporation (section 171.1). Similarly, such co-ops cannot distribute any of its property to members during its existence or on its dissolution (section 171.2); nor can anyone profit from the subletting of member units of such co-ops (section 171.3). Non-profit housing co-ops may have non-member units (section 171.5), to which the Residential Tenancy Act applies. As member units are not governed by the RTA, special evictions procedures are set out in section 171.8 and following sections. These procedures have given rise to large volume of litigation as they are required to comply with certain minimums standards ensuring procedural fairness.