This dataset includes over one million business and not-for-profit entities incorporated with Corporations Canada, a division of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada. Corporations Canada is Canada's federal corporate regulator, responsible for administering laws regarding the incorporation of Canadian businesses, except for financial intermediaries. Each corporation is registered with corporation number, corporate name, office address, current status, directors, annual filling dates, etc.
Dataset Information
Subject
Economics and Industry
Jurisdiction
Federal
Data Provider
Corporations Canada, a division of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada
Source
open.canada.ca
Attribution
Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence - Canada.
Dataset Details
A corporation is a new legal entity created when incorporating. In Canada, a corporation has the same rights as a person. Any business and not-for-profit operating in Canada can incorporate federally. This dataset includes:
(1) business corporations created under the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA),
(2) not-for-profit corporations created under the Canada Corporations Act, Part II (CCA II),
(3) not-for-profit corporations created under the Canada Not-for profit Corporations Act (NFP),
(4) cooperatives created under the Canada Cooperatives Act (COOP),
(5) board of trades created under the Boards of Trade Act (BOTA), and
(6) other corporations regulated by Corporations Canada (e.g., special act corporation).
This dataset does not include corporations created under financial legislation (such as financial institutions, insurance companies or loan and trust companies) or those created under provincial/territorial legislation or corporate legislation from another jurisdiction.
Information about federal corporations is public information, including a corporation's registered office address, and the names and addresses of its directors, as required by corporate laws that govern federal corporations. This applies even after a corporation has been dissolved, amalgamated or discontinued. Corporate information is made public to help people, like investors, financial institutions and other stakeholders, make timely and informed decisions about corporations, and let people know who is responsible for the corporation. Information and documents filed are not removed from the corporate records even when new information or documents are filed, including documents previously filed, filed for previous years or filed by mistake. Corporate laws require the public disclosure of this information.
Statistics
Over 85% of all federally incorporated businesses have official business addresses either in Ontario (52%) or in Quebec (35%). There are much less federal corporations in British Columbia (4.5%), Alberta (3.9%) or other provinces or territories. The most popular cities for fedral corporations are Toronto and Montreal, each having around 150,000 incorporation, or over 12% of all incorporations. Ottawa, Brampton, Mississauga, and Calgary also have significant number of (more than 50,000) federal corporations. The number of federal corporations has grown steadily year over year, with a noticeable increase in recent years. The number of federal incorporations in 2021 and 2020 were growing more than 30% than in the previous years, largely attributed to new market opportunities created by the pandemic, largely in the health and education sectors. We expect to see more federal incorporations in the coming years.