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TRANSPARENCY REGISTERS & YOUR COMPANY

In October 2019, the BC Government amended the Business Corporations Act that governs all businesses registered in BC. This amendment included the requirement of establishing Transparency Registers for every company registered in BC. The Transparency Register must be complete for each company no later than October 1, 2020 and must be updated annually upon corporate year end. The Transparency Register requires reporting the ‘significant individuals’ involved in the business and is to be kept with the company’s records in the minute book.

What does this mean for you?

If our office acts as your company’s Registered & Records office, we will be reaching out to you over the next few months to obtain the information required to prepare a Transparency Register for your company. If you maintain your own records and have questions about what is required, we would be happy to assist you with this process.

Who qualifies as a ‘significant individual’ for the purposes of the transparency register?

Commonly this will be someone who holds a significant number of shares in the company (25% or more), someone who has the right to elect, appoint, or remove company directors, or someone who has influence over someone who has those shares and/or rights. For a full description of  who qualifies as a significant individual, see section 119.11 of the legislation here: https://www.leg.bc.ca/parliamentary-business/legislation-debates-proceedings/41st-parliament/4th-session/bills/first-reading/gov24-1.

Who has access to the Transparency Register?

Only directors of the company are able to request access to the document. The information in the document is not made public except for purposes of an investigation as further defined by the Act.

In order to facilitate this requirement, we will happily answer any questions you have regarding this change and work towards establishing your company’s Transparency Register, simply get in touch with our corporate team at cmacrae@entrustlaw.ca today.

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