BCBCA Amendments Require BC Companies To Keep Transparency Register

On the heels of federal amendments to the Canada Business Corporation Act discussed in our previous blog post (the "CBCA Amendments") and British Columbia's 2017 commitment to adopt safeguards to prevent the misuse of corporate entities for tax evasion and other criminal purposes, such as money laundering, corruption and the financing of terrorist activities,¹ amendments to the British Columbia Business Corporations Act (the "BCBCA") will require British Columbia companies to maintain a register of "significant individuals" (the "BCBCA Amendments"). The BCBCA Amendments, which are in many ways similar to the CBCA Amendments, will come into force by regulation.

Similar to the CBCA Amendments, the BCBCA Amendments will only apply to private British Columbia companies, exempting reporting issuers (or equivalents), companies listed on qualifying stock exchanges and certain other companies, which will be specified in the regulations.