What is PROBUS Canada?

PROBUS Canada is a Not-for-profit Corporation, incorporated under the Canada Corporations Act on August 1, 1995 without share capital (online record).

The purpose of PROBUS Canada is to co-ordinate and provide services to Probus clubs across Canada.

Each Probus club is independently operated but coordinated through PROBUS Canada, so that the clubs themselves, through regional representatives on a national Board of Directors, agree to a minimal measure of conformity through a standard constitution and recommended bylaws.

Originally incorporated as PROBUS CENTRE-CANADA, INC., the corporation was renamed to PROBUS Canada on September 2, 2015.

PROBUS Canada is the owner of the registered trademark of the word PROBUS (online record).

Can a club use the PROBUS Canada Corporation Number?

Probus clubs in Canada are generally unincorporated organizations, except for a very small number that choose to register provincially as non-profit corporations.  

PROBUS Canada, by contrast, is a federally incorporated non-profit organization and has been assigned its own corporation number.  

From time to time, individual Probus clubs are asked to provide a corporation number as proof of non-profit status, for example when applying for discounted hall rentals or software subscriptions. This naturally raises the question: can a local club use the PROBUS Canada corporation number for this purpose?  

The answer is no. Local clubs may not use the PROBUS Canada corporation number because they are separate entities with their own constitutions and bylaws.  

In practice, clubs can sometimes address this requirement by providing the Social Insurance Number of a designated club representative, often the Treasurer. As another option, a club may decide to undertake the more involved process of registering provincially as a non-profit organization.