Saskatchewan Condominium Corporation Purchases Bitcoin Interest

Recent news stories have said that a Regina-based condominium corporation recently bought 0.4 bitcoin for $25,000, and also allocated $700 per month for future purchases of the cryptocurrency.

An Ontario condominium corporation would not be permitted to make such an investment.

Investments by Ontario condominium corporations must comply with Section 115 of Ontario’s Condominium Act, 1998. Among other things, Section 115 says that condominium corporations (in Ontario) can only invest in “eligible securities”, which are currently defined as follows:

“eligible security” means a bond, debenture, guaranteed investment certificate, deposit receipt, deposit note, certificate of deposit, term deposit or other similar instrument that,

(a)  is issued or guaranteed by the government of Canada or the government of any province of Canada,  OR

(b)  is issued by an institution located in Ontario insured by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation or the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario.

There is room for debate about whether or not each security (if not government issued/guaranteed) must be CDIC or DICO insured (or if it is sufficient if the security is issued by a “qualifying institution”). There is a pending amendment to the Act which, in my view, will resolve this debate. In particular, Section 115(5) will be amended to say that condominium investments must be either:

• issued or guaranteed by the government of Canada, or the government of any province of Canada – no change to this wording; or
• issued by an institution located in Ontario and… insured in accordance with the regulations by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation or the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Ontario – emphasis added to highlight the change in this wording.

But this much is clear: Ontario condominium corporations can’t be making Bitcoin purchases.

Stay tuned to Condo Law News to keep up to date on the latest developments on condominium law!