The Nonprofit Sector in Canada: Roles and Relationships

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

The editor of this collection of papers estimates that there are roughly
870,000 nonprofit organizations in Canada. An extensive introduction
defining the sector and explaining its significance is followed by
papers on a variety of topics, including home care in Quebec versus
Ontario, religious nonprofit organizations in Ontario, the effects of
government cutbacks, the nonprofit sector in Manitoba, and the
activities of the Canadian Ethnocultural Council.

The papers are meticulously researched, convincingly argued, and (with
one exception) well written. Readers will come away with a fresh
appreciation of the differences between nonprofit organizations and
charities, and of the challenges the sector is facing as a result of its
diminishing government funding.