In short
- Every fact comes from a public source named on this page, under that source's open licence.
- Federal corporations are loaded every day Corporations Canada publishes new files.
- No person is taken from the added sources. Directors come only from the federal record and are kept out of search engines.
- This is not the official register: check the federal record before you rely on a fact.
The sources
Every fact on this site comes from one of these public sources and is shown under its publisher's licence. A page says which source each part of it comes from.
What each source adds
Federal corporations
Every federal corporation: its name, number, business number, status, registered office, dates and last annual return. Directors and filings come from Corporations Canada's Federal Corporation API, checked when a company page is opened and collected in the background for director search.
Each corporation has its own page, by corporation number.
Quebec's enterprise register
Corporations, not-for-profits, co-operatives and mutual insurers registered in Quebec: status, legal form, governing law, dates, head office, activities and names. Left out on purpose: sole proprietorships and partnerships (often a person's name), and the people the register lists.
Each has its own page, by enterprise number (NEQ). Nothing is for sale on those pages, as the licence asks.
Registered charities
Each charity's designation, category, programs, revenue and spending, and gifts to other charities. Left out on purpose: the directors and officers file, and staff pay.
By business number: a federal corporation that is also a charity shows it on its page.
Federal grants and contributions
Agreements with corporations and charities: department, program, value and dates. Left out on purpose: grants to individuals and sole proprietors.
By business number only.
Federal contracts over $10,000
Contracts each department awarded: what for, value as last amended, dates and how it was awarded. Left out on purpose: every contract whose supplier could not be matched with certainty, which includes every supplier who is a person.
The file has no business numbers, so a supplier is matched only by the number in a numbered company's name, or by its exact name when the postal area its contracts give is the corporation's own.
Lobbying registrations
Every registration since 1996: whether a corporation lobbies through its own employees or consultants, the subjects, the institutions lobbied, and in its own words what about. Left out on purpose: the lobbyists, the people who filed the registrations, the officials they met, and a consultant's name unless it is plainly a company's.
The file has no corporation numbers, so a client is matched only by the number in a numbered company's name, or by its exact name when the postal area of its address is the corporation's own.
Money services businesses
Registration status, services, dates and where each business is incorporated. Left out on purpose: businesses without an incorporation, most often run by a person.
By incorporation number, only when FINTRAC gives a federal number or a Quebec enterprise number.
Banks, insurers, and trust and loan companies
Every institution OSFI regulates: its kind, its office in Canada and, for an insurer, the classes of insurance it may offer. Left out on purpose: the name and title of each institution's representative.
Each has its own page. It links to a federal or Quebec company page only when exactly one corporation has its exact name.
Court-supervised restructurings (CCAA)
The court, file numbers, dates, monitor and amounts at the first filing. Left out on purpose: the monitor's representative and contact details.
By name, only when the name carries the corporation's number, or exactly one corporation has that name, it existed before the first court order and its office is in the same province.
Quebec licences and permits
Construction licences and their sub-categories, alcohol permits, and the list of enterprises not complying with francization. Left out on purpose: permit holders who are people, agents, and contact details.
By Quebec enterprise number (NEQ) only.
Counties and regions
Which county or region each city and town is in, for the province pages.
By place name within the province.
How a record reaches a company page
Where a source gives a corporation number, a business number or a Quebec enterprise number, its records are matched by that number, and nothing else. Some sources give only a name. For those, a record is shown on a company page only when the name is that corporation's exact name (capitals, accents, punctuation and "Limited" or "Ltd." aside) and a second fact agrees, such as the postal area or the province. A name that two corporations share is left unmatched.
Each block that comes from a name says how it was matched. If one is on the wrong company, tell us and we take it off.
People
The only people this site shows are the directors on a federal corporation's record, with the address for service they gave, because the law makes them public so that anyone can see who is responsible for a corporation. They are kept out of search engines, there is no page for a person, and a director can have their address or name taken off this site for free. The privacy policy explains why and how.
No person is taken from the other sources: the names of charity directors, grant recipients who are individuals, permit holders, monitors, lobbyists and bank representatives are left out when the files are loaded.
How current it is
Corporations Canada publishes its files each working day, and this site loads them the same morning. A corporation's directors and annual filings are checked against the federal record when its page is opened, at most a week apart. The other sources are checked each day and loaded when their publisher changes them, as often as the table above says.
Even so, a page can be a day or more behind the official record. Before you rely on a fact, for a closing or to open a bank account for example, check the corporation's federal record (opens in a new tab) or order a certificate of compliance from Corporations Canada.
Credits and licences
- Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada. The licence (opens in a new tab).
- Quebec's register: Registraire des entreprises du Québec, under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Pages with Quebec's data are shared under the same licence.
- Quebec's licences and permits: Régie du bâtiment du Québec, Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux, and Office québécois de la langue française, through Données Québec, under CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab).
- Counties and regions: GeoNames (opens in a new tab), under CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab).
Not the official register
Canada Corporation Registry does not speak for any of the publishers above. Their own records are the official ones, and they are free to search: our resources page links to each.