If you can’t find the corporation you are looking for, please make sure that it is one of the following types of federal corporations:
- Business corporation created under the Canada Business Corporations Act (CBCA)
- Not-for-profit corporation created under the Canada Corporations Act, Part II (CCA II)
- Not-for-profit corporation created under the Canada Not-for profit Corporations Act (NFP)
- Cooperative created under the Canada Cooperatives Act (COOP)
- Board of trade created under the Boards of Trade Act (BOTA)
- Other corporation regulated by Corporations Canada (e.g., special act corporation)
This database 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 or other corporate legislation. You can find corporations created under provincial/territorial legislation by consulting Canada’s Business Registries.
Search by corporation number
Enter the seven-digit corporation number that was assigned to the federal body corporate when it first came under Corporations Canada's jurisdiction (e.g., on incorporation, amalgamation or continuance). The number can be found on the certificate of incorporation, amalgamation or continuance or on most correspondence from Corporations Canada.
Search by corporate name
Enter all or part of the legal name of the federal body corporate (e.g., the name under which it incorporated, amalgamated or continued). Operational or trade names that are different from the legal names are not included in this database. A search by corporate name will also retrieve corporations that had that corporate name as a previous name and have since changed it.
To narrow your search
Entering the full legal name will narrow the search. Alternatively, entering the distinctive element of a corporate name can reduce the number of results returned. For example, when trying to search for a corporation under the name The "Great Canadian Shield Underwriters Inc.", a significant number of corporations will be listed on the results page when the search is done on the term "Great Canadian". The results list will be reduced and the desired corporation will be listed when the more distinctive keywords "Shield Underwriters" are used.
Initials
It is preferable to avoid the use of initials when performing a search since many acronyms make use of periods or special characters. Again, try to use the more distinctive elements of the name. You cannot always avoid using initials because corporations with short names use them extensively. The term "Automation" is not distinctive in a name such as "B.G. Automation Inc.". When you are not sure if special characters or periods are used in between the initials, one search strategy is to combine the commonly used term with different variations of the initials. Try searching for:
- BG Automation
- B&G Automation
- B-G Automation, etc.
Search by Business Number (BN)
Enter the first nine-digit of the fifteen-digit Business Number (BN) that was assigned to the federal body corporate by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Do not enter the last six digits of the BN.
Additional search option - Province of Registered Office
The dropdown list can be used to narrow the search if you know the particular province or territory in which the body corporate’s registered office is situated.
Additional search option - Corporation status
Corporation status refers to the body corporate’s current legal status. It does not necessarily reflect whether the body corporate is actually operating or not. The dropdown list can be used to narrow the search to find, for instance, a corporation that was amalgamated into another corporation. The corporation statuses are:
- active (i.e., not dissolved or otherwise legally terminated),
- dissolved (i.e., legally terminated under its governing legislation),
- inactive – amalgamated (i.e., merged with another body corporate to form a new body corporate) or
- inactive – discontinued (i.e., moved so that it is governed by other legislation not administered by Corporations Canada).
It should be noted that if the active status is selected for the search, all of the following active statuses will be included in the results list: active; active - intent to dissolve filed; active - dissolution pending (non-compliance); and active - discontinuance pending.
Additional search option - Governing legislation
Governing legislation refers to the act under which a federal body corporate currently exists. The dropdown list can be used to narrow the search if you know the particular act under which the body corporate exists. The options are:
- CBCA – Canada Business Corporations Act
- NFP Act – Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act
- CCA – II – Canada Corporations Act, Part II
- SAOP – Special Act of Parliament
- BOTA – Boards of Trade Act
- COOP (CCA) – Canada Cooperatives Act
- PFSA – Pension Fund Societies Act
- Other – other acts administered by Corporations Canada
Search Results
The search results list contains the names of all of the federal bodies corporate which meet the search criteria. The maximum number of results returned will be 200.