On 2017, December 21 SPECTRUM received word from the Canada Revenue Agency that its request for charitable status had been approved. In late Jnauary of 2018, the official documentation was received, dated 2018, January 18. This document back-dated SPECTRUM's charitable status to the beginning of SPECTRUM's 2017-2018 fiscal year, namely 2017, August 1. This was an extraordinarily significant event in SPECTRUM history, since it meant that SPECTRUM could: (1) issue income-tax receipts for charitable donations, and (2) apply for a much wider variety of funding opportunities than previously. The main consequence of this was that SPECTRUM's financial position became much more secure. NOTE: On the second page of the official document, the business number was incorrectly given (two digits were transposed); it was later corrected to read: 85096 576 RR0001.