Federal Public Transparency Register Highlights Ongoing Concerns For Trusts

Is there such a thing as a "privately held" corporation anymore?

Effective January 22, 2024, private corporations governed by the Canada Business Corporations Act ("CBCA") are required to publicly disclose their individuals with "significant control" ("ISCs"); however, the ISC identification rules remain murky in their application to shareholders that are trusts. Government guidance is urgently required to ensure corporations and shareholders can properly meet these new obligations.

Registers of individuals with significant control (more commonly referred to as "transparency registers") are not a new concept in Canada and neither are the privacy law concerns that have existed since their inception. Private CBCA corporations have been required to maintain transparency registers as part of their corporate records since 2019. British Columbia created similar obligations for its private corporations in 2020. Quebec and Ontario followed in 2023, with Quebec being the