We, at the Centre for Social Innovation, have undertaken the drafting of this position paper to kick start a discussion and build consensus in the field. Working with our collaborators, the results of this discussion will comprise the foundation of the submission on social enterprise and social finance put forward to the Partnership Project through our provincial sector network - the Ontario Nonprofit Network in collaboration with the Ontario Social Economy Roundtable partners (includes folks such as OnCoop, CEDNet and the Toronto Enterprise Fund among others) and the Social Enterprise Council of Canada.

The Centre for Social Innovation has been an innovative social enterprise since 2004 and has coached and supported dozens of other social enterprises through its incubation services and the Enterprising Nonprofits Program in Toronto. CSI has also been a leader in the development and enhancement of an enabling environment for social enterprise through its work with the Social Entrepreneurship Summit(s), the Social Enterprise Council of Canada, the Ontario Social Economy Roundtable, the Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise and many other initiatives. Our close contact with the sector and our practical experience have led us to make and support a number of straightforward recommendations that we believe will strengthen social enterprise in Ontario.

We recommend that the Ontario government:

1. Implement the mechanisms to enable issuing community bonds as put forward in the proposed addendums to Bill 65 by the Ontario Nonprofit Network
2. Change Infrastructure Ontario's eligibility criteria to include a broader range of community-based and nonprofit social enterprise that would be able to access this existing finance provider.
3. Make policy changes to give first right of refusal on the purchase of public lands to nonprofits to ensure that community assets remain serving the public. (a recommendation also made by Home Ownership Alternatives to address affordable housing in communities)
4. Work with the federal government to allow social enterprise to become an RRSP-eligible investment. (similar to what Nova Scotia has done with its CEDIF's program)
5. The creation of tax incentives for social enterprise, as put forward by the Ontario Social Economy Roundtable. (although not outlined here, OSER is preparing this recommendation)

These recommendations achieve several goals:

• Have a big impact with minimal cost - several are relatively small policy changes that do not require massive additional dollars, but are quickly actionable and do deliver concrete benefits enabling social enterprise to thrive in Ontario. They are practical and quick.
• Put the power in the hands of citizen investors and strengthen the relationship between public benefit sector and its constituency enabling existing dollars to be put to better use
• Open up the social finance field to engage citizens and constituency in becoming investors in social enterprise. While large institutional players will be necessary, they will follow where their customers tell them to go. We need to ensure that the customers and citizens can support social enterprise, as this enables us to leverage our greatest asset - our relationships.

Our lived experience is that there is significant number of investors with money interested in social enterprise but there is a shortage of good ideas and solid social enterprise investments to invest in. Traditional investors are looking for more aggressive returns and more patient investors, who tend to be more risk adverse, need the community bond review process to give them increased confidence their dollars will be well invested, for the public good. The combination of the above recommendations will go a long way to enabling social enterprise to thrive in Ontario.

For a full copy of the overall recommendations, please see this document.

Cross-posted from Tonya Surman's blog on August 24

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