Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta or Quebec for a non-resident founder

Direct answer

On the rule most non-resident founders ask about, the four provinces are identical: none of Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta or Quebec imposes any director-residency requirement, so a board composed entirely of people outside Canada is lawful in all four. The real differences sit elsewhere. Alberta is the only one of the four that requires a person holding Canadian status — a resident-Albertan agent for service — and the only one whose incorporation the founder cannot file at all, because filings pass through a private registry agent in person. British Columbia requires two provincial addresses open to the public between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on business days. Quebec publishes ultimate-beneficiary information, requires a French name and asks every director for identity documents, while the other three keep beneficial ownership private or have no register at all. And every province's small-business rate runs through Canadian-controlled private corporation status, which a foreign-controlled company does not have.

Why the usual comparison is the wrong one

Almost every published comparison of Canadian provinces for foreign founders is a comparison of director-residency rules. It reaches four provinces — Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec — and then treats them as interchangeable, because on that one criterion they are, each of them having removed or never had the rule. Ontario's requirement was repealed with effect from 5 July 2021, leaving disqualifications about age, capacity, individual-person status and bankruptcy only. [1] Alberta's went the same way, and Alberta's own guidance compresses the whole test to "Directors must be adults." [4] [15] British Columbia never imposed one. [2] Quebec admits "any natural person" as a director subject only to capacity, and permits a board of one. [5]

Federal incorporation is the outlier, and that is why these four keep appearing together. The Canada Business Corporations Act requires that "at least twenty-five per cent of the directors of a corporation must be resident Canadians. However, if a corporation has less than four directors, at least one director must be a resident Canadian." [8] A founder with nobody in Canada willing to sit on the board is shut out of the federal route and pushed toward one of these four provinces. The federal versus provincial comparison works through that decision in full.

Two footnotes to the repeal story matter, because both produce wrong answers that look right. Ontario's definition of "resident Canadian" survives in section 1(1) of the Business Corporations Act with a note that it "is repealed" on a day to be named by proclamation — enacted in 2020 and, on the verification date, never proclaimed. [1] A definition with nothing left to define is not a requirement, but a reader who finds it and stops there will conclude the opposite. Ontario's forms compound the impression: the articles collect "an indication if the director is resident Canadian", and the Corporations Information Act form asks for resident-Canadian status "if applicable". [38] A field on a form is not a qualification requirement. And Alberta's repeal reached the Business Corporations Act and nothing else: Alberta co-operatives still carry the old rule, and Alberta's own change-notice page states that for a co-operative "At least 25% of the board of directors must be resident Canadians." [56] Choose the wrong vehicle and the rule you thought you had escaped is back.

So the residency row is a filter, not a comparison: once it has selected the four it has nothing left to say, and the founder still has to choose. What separates them is a different set of questions — what presence the province demands inside its borders, who may press the button on a filing, whether a person outside Canada can even obtain the credential the portal requires, whether the owner's name becomes public, what the government charges to start and to stay alive, what a foreign-controlled company actually pays in tax, and whether the province offers any route to living in Canada. On those the four are not close.

How to read this page: the decision flow

Nine questions decide the answer for almost every founder, and they are not equally weighted. Take them in this order, because an early "no" removes a province regardless of how it scores on everything below.

1. Do you have a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, ordinarily resident in Alberta, who will consent to be named as your agent for service? If not, Alberta is out, whatever its tax rate. This is a statutory requirement with no workaround in the Act. [4]
2. Can you accept that your name, the basis of your control and your percentage become publicly searchable? If not, Quebec is out. Quebec is the only one of the four that publishes ultimate-beneficiary information. [6] [20]
3. Is your brand name usable in French, with a French generic element? If not, Quebec requires you to change it — a French name is a condition of obtaining juridical personality, not a labelling rule applied afterwards. [7]
4. Do you need a route to living in Canada? If yes, Ontario is out on the verification date: every stream but the employer-driven Workforce Priority stream is closed, with no entrepreneur route. [31] And note that every open entrepreneur stream in the other three requires you to move, not merely to own.
5. Will you have a Canadian mailing address that reliably reaches you? Quebec's registry credential is posted automatically to the registered enterprise and cannot be applied for. [63] British Columbia recovers a lost company password to the registered office's mailing address or the company email. [46] Ontario reissues the company key to the official email, or failing that to the registered office. [9]
6. Will you sell software, telecommunication services or goods into British Columbia? If yes, BC provincial sales tax may reach you whichever province you incorporate in, with no revenue threshold on some scenarios. [50]
7. Will you operate in more than one of the four? If yes, the New West Partnership changes the arithmetic dramatically in favour of a western home jurisdiction — and does not help a federal corporation at all. [83]
8. Is the company expected to be profitable? If yes, the general-rate spread between Alberta and British Columbia is four percentage points and dwarfs every registry fee on this page. Registry fees are noise; the rate is the money.
9. Only then: compare fees, filing convenience and processing targets.

Founders routinely run this list backwards, starting at question nine. That is why so many of them pay for an Alberta NUANS report before discovering they have nobody in Alberta to name.

The master matrix, part one: corporate law and local footprint

Every cell is cited to an official source fetched on or immediately before the verification date, or marked as not published. Fees are government fees in Canadian dollars and exclude professional, agent and registry-agent charges, except where the source itself makes the agent charge part of the price.

The master matrix, part two: access, filing channels, fees and maintenance

This is the half of the comparison that decides whether a founder abroad can actually complete the thing, and it is almost never published.

The master matrix, part three: tax, transparency, language and immigration

Five notes belong under the tables rather than inside them, because they hold in all four provinces. The small-business rate does not reach a foreign-controlled company anywhere: each provincial rate is available only to a Canadian-controlled private corporation, and the CRA's conditions include not being controlled directly or indirectly by non-resident persons. [30] Incorporating in any of the four makes the company a Canadian taxpayer permanently: a corporation incorporated in Canada after 26 April 1965 "shall be deemed to have been resident in Canada throughout a taxation year". [69] The federal Start-up Visa is not a fallback: IRCC's page carries the banner "Paused", states the programme "was paused on June 30, 2026" and is closed to all other applications, records that the associated work permit stopped accepting new applicants on 19 December 2025 — and it never applied to Quebec, being defined as targeting businesses in Canada outside Quebec. [35] Banking is unverified for all four: no source reviewed here commits any bank to opening an account for a non-resident-owned corporation. And the tables do not rank the provinces, because their rows point in different directions — Alberta wins on tax rate and loses on filing access and local presence, Ontario wins on maintenance cost and loses on immigration, British Columbia wins on remote filing access and loses on the attended-office requirement, Quebec loses on privacy and wins on being the one province where a Montreal address is lawful for the statutory office. Where a cell carries no number, no government publishes one.

Local footprint: the row that actually separates the four

Strip the four down to what each requires to exist inside its borders, and a clean ranking appears. It is worth doing slowly, because this is the row that most often kills a plan after money has been spent.

Ontario and Quebec require an address

Ontario's registered office must be in Ontario at the location specified in the articles, with records there or at another place in Ontario designated by the directors. [1] The ministry's operational gloss is blunt: the registered office "must be a physical location in Ontario. A P.O. Box alone is not acceptable." [38] The address must be given in full — street name and number, municipality, province, country and postal code, or the lot and concession where there is no street. Moving it within a municipality takes a directors' resolution; moving it to another place in Ontario takes a special resolution of shareholders, which is a higher threshold than founders expect and a reason to get the first address right. [1]

Quebec's rule is plainer still: "The head office of a corporation must be permanently located in Québec", with the section 31 records kept there — the articles, the by-laws, any unanimous shareholder agreement, shareholder minutes and resolutions, the names and domiciles of directors, and a securities register. [5] Moving it within the same judicial district takes a board resolution; moving it to another Quebec judicial district takes a special resolution. [5]

Neither province requires that any particular person be present. A founder abroad contracts for a compliant provincial address, files it, and the requirement is met — provided the records genuinely sit there and documents delivered there will actually be accepted. Designating a place where the records are not is not compliance; it is a false filing.

British Columbia requires two addresses, and both must be attended

The condition quoted in the matrix is not a mailbox specification. For the registered office, the delivery address "must be for a location in British Columbia that is accessible to the public between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on business days for the delivery of records or notices. The address must not be a post office box." For the records office, the same sentence appears with "for inspection of records" in place of the delivery clause. [13] Two different jobs: one receives, the other exhibits. They may share a location, but they are legally separate designations. [41]

What must physically be at the records office is a long list — the certificate of incorporation and every certificate of amalgamation, continuation, name change or restoration; entered court and registrar's orders; the central securities register; the register of directors; a copy of each consent to act as a director and each written resignation; minutes of every shareholders' meeting and the complete text of every resolution; directors' and committee minutes and resolutions; written conflict disclosures and dissents; and the audited financial statements or the most recent statements where there is no audit — plus the articles, any replacement set with what it replaced, and "the signed copy of the incorporation agreement referred to in section 15 (1) (b)". [41]

The design detail that settles the question is on the form itself. On both office blocks of the Form 1 notice of articles the province field is pre-printed "BC"; the director block, by contrast, is labelled PROVINCE/STATE and COUNTRY. A foreign person is contemplated by the design of the form; a foreign office is not. [13]

British Columbia also legislates for the day the arrangement fails, which tells you what the province thinks the arrangement is. An "applicant agent" — a person who is not a director or officer but is authorised to maintain the offices — may apply to the registrar to transfer the registered office to "the British Columbia residence of a director or officer of the company" on at least 21 days' notice and an affidavit; where receipt cannot be ensured it "may apply to the court for an order of substituted service". [41] Where the agent "is unable to locate any of the directors or officers of the company", it may apply to the court to eliminate the registered office altogether, and the court must then set out "the manner in which records may be served on, and mailed, delivered, sent, provided and furnished to, the company". [41]

Read those two sections against a wholly foreign board and the consequence is uncomfortable: sections 39 and 41 both target the British Columbia residence of a director or officer, and a company with no director or officer in British Columbia offers no such target — so section 40, elimination by court order, is the route that remains. That is an inference from the structure of the provisions rather than a statement either provision makes, and it is offered as one. The practical version is simple enough: an abandoned BC office arrangement can end with a court deciding, in your absence, how you are to be served.

Alberta requires a person, and that person must hold Canadian status

Section 20.1(1) of the Business Corporations Act is one sentence: "A corporation shall appoint an agent for service who is a resident Albertan." Section 1(cc.1) defines that as either "a Canadian citizen ordinarily resident in Alberta" or "a permanent resident within the meaning of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Canada) and ordinarily resident in Alberta". [4] Both limbs bind, and both exclusions follow: a foreign national living in Calgary on a work permit is not a resident Albertan, and neither is a Canadian citizen living in Toronto.

Alberta describes the role in ordinary language: an agent for service "is an individual located in Alberta who can accept notices and documents in person or by mail on behalf of the corporation. The agent for service does not need to be a lawyer." [57] Two further conditions narrow the field. The agent "must be an individual and must have a physical and mailing address within Alberta" — a firm cannot hold the appointment — and the agent must consent. [56]

The statute is also asymmetric in a way worth pricing. An agent intending to resign owes the corporation "not less than 60 days' notice"; but if the agent dies or the appointment is revoked, the corporation must notify the Registrar and "forthwith appoint a new agent for service" — no grace period in the statute's own words. [4] The one-year figure that circulates is the outer limit before the Registrar acts, not an entitlement: "Failure to appoint a new agent for service within one year of the previous agent's revocation or resignation means your corporation can be dissolved by the Registrar of Corporations", and for an out-of-province corporation the Alberta registration "can be cancelled". [56] The cheap insurance is section 20.2: a corporation may appoint an alternative agent, also a resident Albertan, and the two "do not have to be with the same firm and can be located at different addresses within Alberta". The government fee for that filing is $0.00. [4] [16]

The registered office must separately be a physical Alberta location, publicly accessible in normal business hours and "readily identifiable from the address or other description given in the notice", and a designated post office box cannot serve as either office. [4] That disposes of three arrangements founders reach for: a PO box can be the address for service by mail and nothing else; a locked, unstaffed or unlabelled suite fails subsection 20(6) even if someone collects the post; and a records office is not optional, because if you do not designate one the registered office silently becomes it under subsection 20(7).

The consequence is the sharpest finding on this page. A founder with nobody in Canada can satisfy Ontario or Quebec with a contract and British Columbia with a professional engagement, but cannot satisfy Alberta at all without a citizen or permanent resident who actually lives there and will consent to be named. Alberta has the lowest tax rates of the four and the highest human-presence barrier, and those two facts are usually reported separately.

The mail risk, which is the same problem wearing four different hats

Every one of the four sends something consequential to an address you supplied, and every one of them deems it delivered.

Alberta posts annual return reminders and the section 213 notices that precede dissolution to the registered office, and section 285(5) deems a notice received "at the time it would be delivered in the ordinary course of mail or electronic means despite the fact that it is returned as undeliverable". [4] British Columbia sends the annual report reminder, "any notice of dissolution … should the company fail to file its annual reports for two consecutive years", and the Corporate Online company access code to the registered office's mailing address. [13] [46] Ontario reissues the company key to the official corporation email address, and "if there is no email on file, it will be sent to the registered or head office address or principal place of business". [9] Quebec posts the clicSÉQUR Express access code automatically to every registered enterprise, with no application process. [63]

A stale address in any of the four is a way to lose the company without seeing the warning — and in three of the four it is also a way to lose the credential that would let you fix it. Decide before filing who opens that envelope, how its contents reach you, and what happens if it never arrives.

Identity and access from abroad: the row nobody publishes

This is the question a founder outside Canada actually needs answered — can I get into the system at all? — and it is the question the registries answer least well. Four different models, and only one of them is fully documented.

British Columbia is the most permissive, and it publishes the fact. Corporate Online carries a "No Login Required" menu: "The services listed under 'No Login Required' on the Services Menu are available to all of the Corporate Registry's customers without the necessity of logging in. When you access services without logging in, you must pay by credit card." That menu carries the incorporation application, extraprovincial registration, BC and extraprovincial annual reports, and notices of change of address and of directors. [46] There is no identity check, no BC Services Card and no in-person step for the incorporation itself. Nor is an account needed for the name: "you don't need an account to request a name and pay by credit card". [49] The BC Services Card is explicitly a residents' credential — it "provides access to government services for B.C. residents" — and is neither available to nor required of a non-resident. [47]

Two BC caveats survive. A customer profile requires "the incorporation number and password for a BC company", so it cannot exist before the company does, and "There can only be one customer profile for a company". [46] And a Business BCeID requires being "an authorized representative of your organization" and warns "You may have to provide documentation to prove your business or organization's identity" — whether a non-resident can complete one from abroad is not established, and is listed as unverifiable in the British Columbia research. [47]

Ontario is the least documented, and that is the finding. The registry states that to manage an entity you need "an existing registered entity, a company key, an Ontario.ca Login, an Ontario Business Account", and that "if you don't already have an Ontario.ca Login or an Ontario Business Account, you will be prompted to create these". [40] What Ontario does not publish is any eligibility rule for either account: no residency test, no accepted-document list, and no statement that a person outside Canada can or cannot complete the step. This page will not tell you that a non-resident can complete Ontario's account creation, and will not tell you that they cannot. Ask before booking a filing date.

There is a live branding conflict worth knowing, because it makes the instructions look wrong. The ministry's filing notices, effective 1 February 2025, still direct filers to "a valid and up-to-date ServiceOntario online account", while the registry page names an Ontario.ca Login and an Ontario Business Account. [38] [40] Follow the registry page. And note that Ontario publishes a documented route around the account entirely: filing "Through an intermediary acting on your behalf", where the intermediary claims delegated authority using the company key you give it. [38] Sharing the key is the act of delegation, which is why Ontario's terms warn that "unauthorized use of the company key or delegated authority may result in suspension of access". [40]

Alberta has no account to obtain, because it has no portal. Every incorporation, change notice and annual return goes through a private registry agent, in person, with identification. [15] Alberta sorts agent services into three levels — incorporation and new registration at level 2, annual returns and every change of address, director or agent for service at level 1, amalgamations and share-structure changes at level 3 — and warns that "Not every agent offers every level", adding the sentence that governs the whole comparison: "Service fees are not regulated and may vary from one agent to another. There is also a government fee for certain registrations." [54] What Alberta publishes about identity is one phrase — "valid identification" — and nothing about whether a given agent will accept a foreign passport or act for a client it has never met. That is the agent's policy, not a published rule.

Quebec's filing is open but its aftercare is gated by Canadian post. Filing and payment are contemplated without an authenticated account, so the constitution itself can be completed from anywhere. What cannot be is access to Mon bureau, the Registraire's authenticated space where a registered enterprise files its current and annual updating declarations and every other change. Access "s'effectue au moyen des services d'authentification gouvernementale clicSÉQUR Express ou clicSÉQUR Entreprises", and clicSÉQUR Express needs the ten-digit NEQ and an eight-character access code. The code cannot be applied for: "Les entreprises n'ont pas à demander de code d'accès clicSÉQUR Express. En effet, un tel code est permanent et il est transmis automatiquement par la poste à toutes les entreprises immatriculées." [63]

Whether that code can be posted to an address outside Canada is not established — no page reviewed for the sibling research says either way. Nor is it established what a foreign natural person can obtain by way of a personal clicSÉQUR credential, or what clicSÉQUR-Entreprises enrolment requires. The honest summary is the useful one: in Quebec you can file from anywhere, but the physical Quebec address on the register is where the credential controlling your file will arrive, and whoever handles mail there is in the loop whether you intended it or not.

Ranked on how much a founder abroad can complete without engaging anyone in Canada: British Columbia first, because the no-login path is published; Quebec next, because the filing is open even though the aftercare credential is not; Ontario third, because the route exists but the eligibility rule does not; Alberta last, by a wide margin, because there is no route that does not run through an Alberta intermediary.

Filing access: who is allowed to press the button

Ontario is direct and key-gated. A founder files in the Ontario Business Registry with a service standard of "immediate" online, receiving the certificate, the endorsed articles, the receipt and the company key in one email. [10] Authority to transact does not come from owning the corporation: every entity has a nine-digit company key, issued free, and whoever holds it can file. [9] The key "is sent only to the official corporation email address", which is a field in the articles and does not appear on the public record. [38] One field on one form decides who receives the credential to your company. Set it to a mailbox the corporation owns — not a founder's personal address, and not a departing consultant's.

Ontario's mail route is a genuine alternative rather than a penalty box: the same $300, on a 15 business day standard instead of "immediate", and "when incorporation is completed, you will receive your documents by email". [10] But payment by mail is "a cheque or personal cheque made out to the Minister of Finance", pre-printed by the bank with a name and address, with an extra $35 if it is returned — and a founder who does not yet have a Canadian company does not yet have a Canadian chequing account. Whether a foreign-issued card or a foreign-drawn cheque is accepted is not published. [10] The intermediary route removes the problem, because the intermediary pays the ministry and bills you.

British Columbia is direct, immediate, and carries a paper duty. Founders are told to "Apply using Corporate Online", and the company "is incorporated on the date and time the application is filed" — so British Columbia has no meaningful processing time for the incorporation itself, and the whole delay lives in the Name Request. [11] [41] But the articles and incorporation agreement are signed and kept rather than filed, and a named completing party carries a personal duty: before filing, to "examine the articles and incorporation agreement to ensure that both are endorsed" and to designate as incorporators "all of those persons who have endorsed both the articles and the incorporation agreement and no other persons"; after incorporation, to deliver the originally signed documents to the delivery address of the records office, or mail them there by registered mail. [41]

"Endorsed" is defined, and the definition bites. The record must contain "a signature line for each signatory with the name of that signatory set out legibly under the signature line", an original signature on each line, and no reason to believe a signature is not that person's. [41] A scan of an unlabelled signature block fails that test. So one person is personally attesting to the state of documents nobody at the registry will ever see, and originals must reach British Columbia — logistics rather than a legal barrier, but not a purely electronic transaction. Note also that the post-incorporation delivery duty has no deadline and no reminder.

Alberta is the only one of the four a founder cannot file. Every filing goes through "a registry agent or authorized Alberta service provider", presented with the NUANS report, valid identification and the fee; there is no consumer-facing government channel for corporate filings. [15] An agent must therefore be retained before anything happens, and its charge is unregulated: the September 2026 catalogue files corporate products under "Uncapped Products", footnoted "Maximum Service Charge determined by registry agent". [16] The only corporate rows in that catalogue sitting in the "No Government Fee & Capped Products" table, with a maximum service charge of 0.00, are the New West Partnership products — that is, the free channel for corporations from British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which a non-resident founder incorporating fresh in Alberta cannot use.

The total cost of an Alberta incorporation is therefore unknowable from official sources: $291.75 is the government's share and a private business quotes the rest. Alberta also publishes no service standard or processing time for any Corporate Registry filing, so a same-day promise is an agent's commercial commitment, to be obtained in writing. [57] Ask an agent for its charge on the incorporation and on each change notice carrying a $0.00 government fee, because over five years an ordinary corporation files far more zero-fee notices than incorporations, and the agent's margin lives entirely in the former.

Four questions are worth putting to an Alberta agent in writing before paying anything: will you also act as our agent for service, or only file paperwork; what is your charge on each filing, itemised; who physically receives mail at the registered office, and how fast is it forwarded; and what identification will you accept from a director outside Canada.

Quebec is direct, fast, and asks for identity documents. The Registraire publishes a target of two business days for articles of constitution, one under priority treatment — and 15 to 30 business days for "any other request", with delivery time excluded and extra time where an application is incomplete, unsigned, unpaid or inconsistent with the register. [19]

Quebec offers two constitution routes and the choice matters from abroad. File the articles with the initial declaration and the declaration must follow within 48 hours; file the articles with the notice establishing the head-office address and the list of directors, and the initial declaration follows separately within 60 days, free if filed inside the window. Across many time zones the 48-hour route is unattractive; the 60-day route is the safer default. [19]

The distinctive requirement is documentary. A copy of a government-issued identity document showing given name, surname and date of birth is required for each director named in the register and each newly elected director — for foreign directors, a passport or "toute autre pièce d'identité délivrée par une autorité gouvernementale et sur laquelle figure une date de naissance". The obligation targets directors only, expressly not ultimate beneficiaries, shareholders or partners. Documents must be legible and unexpired, in PDF, JPEG or PNG; the copy is destroyed after the filing; and "Omettre de fournir ces renseignements entraînera le refus de votre demande." [21] A useful detail for a distributed board: a director may transmit their own copy directly to the Registraire on a paper form obtained from Services Québec, so no co-founder need handle another's passport scan.

One Quebec finality point has no equivalent in the other three. Once the constitution is published, "the corporation can no longer be cancelled other than by court judgment". [19] Settle the share structure before filing, not after.

Names, and the one language rule that exists in only one of the four

Three of the four provinces treat a corporate name as a registry-confusion question. Only British Columbia publishes both a fee and a service standard for it.

Ontario requires an "Ontario-biased or weighted Nuans name search report" for a named corporation, and is explicit that "A Canada (federal) biased Nuans name search is not acceptable" — the single most common rejected filing among founders who incorporated federally first and reused the report. [38] The report "cannot be dated more than 90 days prior to the filing of the articles", and the ministry's own worked example is exact: articles received on 28 November may rest on a report dated as early as 30 August, but no earlier. The clock runs to the day the articles are filed, not the day drafting starts, and a saved draft does not pause it. You do not file the report — you file the name searched, the Nuans reference number and the report date, and keep the report at the registered office. It "must be obtained from a private name search company. The Ministry does not provide this search", and no official page publishes a price. [38] The report is a search, not a clearance: section 9(1) still prohibits a name likely to deceive, and reading the report is the applicant's job.

British Columbia is the only one of the four with a published tariff and a published wait, and it publishes two different waits. The incorporated-companies page, updated 10 June 2026, says "about 7 to 14 days to process a name request"; the processing-times page, updated 12 August 2026 with times dated 11 August, says "Review and approval — 4 business days" and tells readers to go directly to Name Request for the most accurate figure. [11] [49] Both are official and current; neither is reconciled here. Substantively, a BC name is a three-part construction — a distinctive element, a descriptive element and a corporate designation — you may submit "a maximum of three names which will be considered in the order provided", and an approved name is "reserved for 56 days", extendable only on a request received before that reservation expires. [48] [41]

Alberta requires an Alberta NUANS report that "reserves the proposed name for 90 days" and "must be less than 91 days old" at filing. [15] The Regulation lists seven filings that need one — including the revival of a corporation "that has been dissolved for more than 3 years" and an amalgamation whose name is not identical to a predecessor's — and exempts a corporation with a designated number name. [53] The report is not an Alberta government product; a full-text search of the catalogue that lists every corporate registry government fee returns no NUANS entry, which is how the "no official price" negative is established rather than assumed. [16] Alberta also warns that approval is not protection: "If another corporation feels your corporation's name is too similar to theirs, they can file an objection with the Registrar of Corporations. If the Registrar agrees with the objection, your corporation can be forced to change its name" — at $53.05 plus the agent's charge plus every downstream document. [15]

For a founder abroad on a deadline, the numbered-company route removes the name from the critical path in all four, and in Alberta and Ontario it removes the only cost nobody will quote you.

Quebec treats the name as a constitutional question instead. Section 63 of the Charter of the French language requires that "the name of an enterprise must be in French", section 64 makes a French name a condition of obtaining juridical personality, section 66 extends the rule to names entered by declaration in the enterprise register, and section 68 permits a version in another language only where, when it is used, "the French version appears at least as prominently". [7] The composition rule is the practical one: a Quebec name is a French generic plus a specific plus a juridical particle — Quincaillerie / Saint-Jean / Inc. So "Northwind" alone will not pass; "Studio Northwind" can. Quebec requires no NUANS at all — a search of the Quebec register instead — and reservation is optional at $27, valid 90 days. [5] [18]

The language obligations do not stop at the name, and their thresholds arrive earlier than most founders expect. An enterprise with 5 to 24 employees must declare, on registration or in the initial declaration and on each annual or current updating declaration, the proportion of its employees unable to communicate in French at work — a duty in force since 1 June 2025. [19] An enterprise employing 25 persons or more for six months must register with the Office québécois de la langue française within six months of the end of that period and transmit an analysis of its linguistic situation within three months of its registration certificate — section 139, also in force 1 June 2025, where the previous threshold was 50. [7]

Three further Charter duties bite before the first employee, and they are the ones an online business trips over. Contracts "pre-determined by one party" and their related documents must be drawn up in French, and the parties may be bound by another-language version "only if, after the French version has been remitted to the adhering party, such is their express wish" — a language selector on a terms-of-service page does not satisfy that. Invoices, receipts and acquittances must be drawn up in French. And software must be available in French unless no French version exists. [7]

None of that is a reason to avoid Quebec. It is a reason to know before filing that a brand already attached to a domain may not survive the Charter in its intended form, and that a five-person company in Quebec has a language filing that a five-person company in the other three does not. The Quebec guide works through both.

Transparency: whether your name becomes searchable

For many non-resident founders this is the row that changes the answer, and the four occupy three genuinely different positions — with two of them holding a fourth position in the statute book, not yet in force.

Quebec publishes. Ultimate beneficiaries are declared to the Registraire on a disjunctive five-limb test: 25% of voting rights, or 25% of fair market value, or influence that if exercised would result in control in fact, or being the general partner, or being the trustee. The statute reads "à l'une ou l'autre des conditions suivantes", and the disjunction is the point — a founder who owns 10% but controls the board in fact is caught. [6] Where people have agreed to exercise voting rights jointly and together reach 25%, each is an ultimate beneficiary.

The duty is heavier than its federal or BC equivalents in a way that matters for a layered foreign structure. Enterprises must take the necessary means, not merely reasonable ones — "doivent prendre les moyens nécessaires… Cela signifie qu'elles doivent faire plus que prendre les moyens raisonnables" — requiring a legal, documentary and factual analysis of the share capital and of any agreement capable of influencing how voting rights are exercised. Where a shareholder is itself an enterprise, the ultimate beneficiary is the natural person who indirectly controls or holds the qualifying shares: a holding company in a third country does not terminate the search. And the Registraire "ne peut pas interpréter les nouvelles obligations pour les adapter à la situation particulière d'une entreprise" — there is no ruling process. [20] The obligations reach every enterprise "peu importe leur lieu de constitution (québécoise, canadienne, étrangère)".

What reaches the public register is the name, any other Quebec name, the start and end dates, the qualifying condition and the percentage — and the professional address if one is declared, "failing which the home address becomes public". A post office box cannot serve as a professional address. Not public: the date of birth, the home address where a valid professional address is on file, and certain information about a minor. [20] A founder expecting ownership privacy should learn this before filing, not after. Penalties run from $500 to $5,000 for a natural person and $1,000 to $10,000 otherwise for a late or misleading declaration, and $2,000 to $20,000 for failing to be registered at all. [6]

Ontario and British Columbia keep a register, and keep it in the building. Ontario's sits with the corporate records in Ontario, is filed with nobody and is not public. It records name, date of birth, latest known address, the jurisdiction of residence for tax purposes, the days the person became and ceased to have significant control, a description of how they qualify, and "a description of every step taken to keep the register accurate". It must be reviewed at least once each financial year, with new information recorded within 15 days, and disclosed on request to police, tax officials, the Ontario Securities Commission, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority and FINTRAC. [1] Where the corporation cannot identify anyone with significant control it must still take reasonable steps in accordance with the regulations — an unresolvable ownership chain is not an excuse for an empty file. And the register is expressly carved out of the ordinary shareholder inspection right in section 145(1), by an amendment in force the same day the register was.

British Columbia's is the same shape, stated unusually clearly: the register is kept "in each company's own records office", and "There is no requirement to send the transparency register anywhere. The transparency register is a document that will be kept in the company's records office." [14] The trigger is two independent bases — 25% or more of the shares or votes, or the ability to elect or remove a majority of the directors — and updates are due within 30 days of the company becoming aware. [42] The inspection list is closed: directors, police and the RCMP, the CRA and BC tax authorities, the BC Securities Commission, the BC Financial Services Authority, FINTRAC and the Law Society of British Columbia, "between 9 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday" — which is precisely why the records office must be open in those hours.

British Columbia's penalty structure carries a trap the others do not. Under section 427.1 it is an offence for a private company's register to name someone who is not a significant individual, as well as to omit one who is, or to contain materially false or misleading information — with liability extending to directors and officers who authorise, permit or acquiesce. The maximum is $100,000 for a person other than an individual and $50,000 for an individual. [43] Over-inclusion is an offence on the same footing as omission, so padding the register defensively is not the safe option it looks like. Nothing chases the register either: no filing deadline, no reminder, no fee, no rejection notice. The first party to ask is usually a bank, an acquirer's lawyer or an auditor.

Alberta has nothing. A full-text search of the current King's Printer consolidation for "significant control" returns no hits; the Act imposes no beneficial-ownership register and no transparency filing. [4] The only ownership record it requires is the section 21(1)(d) securities register, which is not filed, and the one ownership disclosure reaching the Registrar — on the annual return — asks for the "names; addresses; percentages of issued voting shares" of the top five shareholders, a shareholder-of-record disclosure that stops at five names rather than a beneficial-ownership analysis. [55]

But Alberta's privacy is friction, not confidentiality, and this is the point most comparisons miss. Section 23(4) entitles any person to examine the filed director notices and the securities register at the records office during usual business hours on payment of a reasonable fee, and to make copies. [4] What Alberta withholds is a searchable central database, not the underlying list — so choosing a records office in Alberta is also a privacy decision.

Both remaining registers are pending, and neither has a date. Ontario's Corporations Information Act now contains a section 6.1, "Return re individuals with significant control", which would require the information to be filed with the Minister if the regulations so require; e-Laws records the amendment as not in force, awaiting an order in council, and no commencement date is published. [37] British Columbia's Bill 20 – 2023 would require filing within six months of recognition, again within 15 days of new or different information and annually; would cut the internal update window from 30 days to 15; would add the significant individual's social insurance number and CRA individual tax number to the recorded fields; and would open a public search of full name and year of birth, citizenship or permanent-residence status, and otherwise every country of citizenship — with the registrar barred from publishing until 90 days after filing. The operative sections come into force "By regulation of the Lieutenant Governor in Council", and no such regulation appears in the consolidation. [44] Alberta consulted between 12 August and 11 September 2025 on requiring private companies to keep beneficial-ownership records and make them available to government authorities; the status is "Results under review" and the drafting is unpublished. [58]

Read together: all three private-register provinces are moving toward filing, and one of them toward publication. A founder choosing a province for registry privacy today is choosing a position that three governments have announced an intention to change, on timetables none of them will state. Build the ownership chart now.

Three cautions close the section. Provincial privacy is not federal privacy: a federal corporation has filed individuals-with-significant-control information with Corporations Canada since 22 January 2024, on incorporation, annually, and within 15 days of a change — and the residential address is public by default, "made public if no address for service is provided". [80] None of this touches a bank: FINTRAC-regulated institutions run their own analysis whatever a registry publishes, identifying "the individuals who directly or indirectly own or control at least 25%" and insisting that "Beneficial owners cannot be other corporations, trusts or other entities. They must be the individuals." Where an institution cannot obtain or confirm that information it must instead verify the identity of "the entity's chief executive officer or of the person performing that function" and "apply the special measures for high-risk clients, including enhanced ongoing monitoring". [78] Failing that requirement does not fail the application outright — it reclassifies you as high risk. And since 1 October 2025 reporting entities must consult Corporations Canada's database for high-risk federal corporations and report a material discrepancy within 30 days; there is no provincial equivalent, because none of the four has a public register to consult. Arriving with a complete, coherent ownership record is therefore the one preparation entirely within your control. See the federal corporation banking scenario.

Tax: the small-business rate is a mirage, and the general rate is the whole story

The province comparison that circulates most widely is a comparison of small-business rates. For a non-resident founder it is close to irrelevant, and the reason is a single condition: every one of the four small-business rates is available only to a Canadian-controlled private corporation, and the CRA's conditions require that the corporation "is not controlled directly or indirectly by one or more non-resident persons". [30]

The statute does the work in two limbs, and the second is the one that surprises people. Section 125(7) excludes "a corporation controlled, directly or indirectly in any manner whatever, by one or more non-resident persons"; and separately "a corporation that would, if each share of the capital stock of a corporation that is owned by a non-resident person … were owned by a particular person, be controlled by the particular person". [68] The first limb catches actual control. The second is an anti-fragmentation rule that asks a purely hypothetical question and does not care whether the non-residents act together, agree on anything, or have ever met. Splitting the cap table among several non-residents does not help. Three non-resident co-founders holding a third each still fail.

Two further consequences follow from the same status. Section 125(1) grants the small business deduction only to a corporation that was "throughout the taxation year, a Canadian-controlled private corporation" — so a company that was Canadian-controlled for eleven months and then took foreign investment across the control line loses the deduction for the whole year. [68] And the three-month balance-due day is available only to a corporation that is a CCPC throughout the tax year and meets further conditions; otherwise tax is "due two months after the end of the tax year". [72] A non-resident-controlled corporation always pays a month earlier, from abroad, through a payment channel it must have arranged in advance.

What the four actually cost a foreign-controlled company

The federal layer is fixed: the basic rate of Part I tax is 38%, 28% after the federal abatement, and "after the general tax reduction, the net tax rate is 15%", while "for Canadian-controlled private corporations claiming the small business deduction, the net tax rate is 9%". [71] The provincial layer is the variable. The table below adds the two published rates together; the combined figures are arithmetic performed here on separately published rates, not a figure any government tabulates, and CRA's own provincial table excludes Quebec and Alberta because neither has a collection agreement with the CRA. [71]

On the column that applies to a foreign-controlled company the spread between best and worst is four percentage points; on the column that does not apply, the four sit within 1.2 points of each other. Worked at three income levels, on active business income, using the combined rates above:

And the same arithmetic run against the status a foreign-controlled company cannot have, to size what CCPC loss costs regardless of province — on $500,000 of active business income, a CCPC in Alberta or British Columbia pays $55,000 against $115,000 or $135,000. The province you choose moves the bill by up to $20,000 a year at the business limit; the control question moves it by $60,000 to $80,000. Fix the second before optimising the first.

This corrects the intuition most fee comparisons produce. The five-year government-fee gap between the cheapest and dearest of the four is a few hundred dollars, as the cost tables below show. The annual tax gap at even modest profitability is thousands. Registry fees are noise; the rate is the money. Alberta's 3.5-point advantage over Ontario is worth $3,500 a year for every $100,000 of taxable active business income, against a five-year government-fee gap of about $257 in Ontario's favour — so any unpriced Alberta cost below roughly $700 a year is outrun by $20,000 of taxable income. What makes Alberta hard for a non-resident is not its price. It is the resident-Albertan agent, the absence of a filing portal, and the fact that the agent's charge is the one number nobody will publish.

Quebec adds a gate the others lack even for a CCPC. The small business deduction runs through a remunerated-hours criterion: the corporation must either be a primary or manufacturing sectors corporation, or have at least 5,500 hours of remunerated employee hours in the year (or for it and its associates in the preceding year), reduced linearly between 5,500 and 5,000 hours and reaching zero at 5,000. [26] A two-founder corporation with no other staff will not clear 5,500 paid hours. Quebec's business limit is also reduced between $10 million and $50 million of paid-up capital and eliminated at $50 million, and the deduction is available only to a CCPC with paid-up capital of $10 million or less and adjusted aggregate investment income of $50,000 or less.

Two of the four rates are mid-transition, which is why a rate must be read from the government that sets it rather than from a table. Quebec's bulletin is dated 29 April 2026 and moves its minimum rate for taxation years beginning after that date, so a calendar-year Quebec corporation sees 3.2% for 2026 and 2.2% from 2027. Ontario's move to 2.2% took effect on 1 July 2026, and the CRA's own provincial table still showed 3.2% on the verification date — the province that sets the rate is the better source.

Finally, two of the four make you file twice. Alberta administers its own corporate tax and requires a separate AT1 return to Tax and Revenue Administration within six months of year end; Quebec requires a separate CO-17 to Revenu Québec on the same clock. [25] Ontario and British Columbia are assessed through the federal T2. That is a recurring professional cost, not a government fee, and it belongs in the comparison even though no government publishes a number for it.

Sales tax: where the four differ for a seller who is somewhere else

Sales tax is collected from customers rather than paid out of profit, so the administrative shape matters more than the rate. On that measure the ranking inverts the income-tax one.

Ontario is one tax at 13%, one registration, one return. [27] Alberta is 5% GST and nothing else, the lightest sales-tax administration in the country. British Columbia adds a separately administered 7% PST, meaning a second registration and a second return. [28] Quebec is 5% GST plus 9.975% QST, 14.975% combined, both administered by Revenu Québec rather than the CRA — one counterparty rather than two, but a different counterparty from every other province. [29]

The federal threshold is the same wherever you incorporate, and it is not measured where founders expect. A person is a small supplier while taxable supplies do not exceed "$30,000 or, where the person is a public service body, $50,000", measured over "the four calendar quarters immediately preceding the particular calendar quarter" — and for a non-resident the measure is "the total amount of all revenues (before expenses) from your worldwide taxable supplies". [70] [76] Exceed $30,000 in a single calendar quarter and the effective date is "no later than the day of the supply that made you exceed $30,000" — the invoice that broke the threshold is itself taxable, with no grace period — and you must register "within 29 days of your effective date of registration". [77]

The largest unbudgeted item in a from-abroad launch sits here, and almost nothing written for founders mentions it. Registering for GST/HST without a Canadian permanent establishment generally requires a security deposit: "Generally, if you do not have a permanent establishment in Canada, or if you make supplies in Canada only through another person's fixed place of business, and you apply to be registered for the GST/HST, you have to provide the CRA with a security deposit." The initial amount is 50% of your estimated net tax for the twelve months after registering, minimum $5,000, maximum $1 million, waived only where you estimate Canadian taxable supplies of "not more than $100,000 annually and your net tax will be between $3,000 remittable and $3,000 refundable annually". [76] The guide is at revision 23 and directs readers to the Tax Centre for current requirements, so treat every figure as a baseline to confirm. Note the shape of the incentive: the absence of a Canadian establishment is what triggers the deposit, so the lightest-footprint structure is the one that must post cash. Budget $5,000 of dead capital until you know otherwise.

British Columbia's provincial tax is the one that reaches you wherever you incorporate, and it is the most commonly missed obligation in this whole comparison. Bulletin PST 001 first defines when a business is located in BC — physical presence such as a storefront, factory, branch or office, excluding temporary space such as a trade-show booth and excluding a contract with a fulfilment house; or "agents or employees physically located in B.C."; or where "the management and control of a corporation is generally in B.C. if the members of the board of directors meet and hold most of their meetings in B.C." [50]

That definition produces an oddity worth naming, because it looks like a contradiction and is not. A BC-incorporated company whose directors all meet abroad, with no BC premises or staff, is for PST purposes not located in British Columbia — while being, for income-tax purposes, deemed resident in Canada under paragraph 250(4)(a). [69] Same company, opposite answers, because the two tests were written for different purposes. That is a reading of two cited tests placed side by side, not a statement either publisher makes about the other.

For a seller located outside British Columbia, four scenarios apply, and two carry no revenue threshold at all:

All four are set out in Bulletin PST 001. [50] A SaaS company incorporated in Ontario with one solicited BC customer and $400 of BC revenue sits squarely inside scenario 2. On soliciting, the bulletin draws a line worth memorising: "If you have only a website that is accessible from anywhere in the world, which does not target B.C. customers, you are not soliciting sales in B.C. However, if you have a website and also solicit sales in B.C. by other means, such as through targeted internet advertisements, promotional flyers or newspaper advertisements, you are soliciting sales in B.C." One geo-targeted campaign into Vancouver crosses it. And not registering does not remove the obligation — you are "still considered a collector". [51]

Quebec's equivalent reach is statutory and narrower in one respect, wider in another. The QST is levied at 9.975% on the value of the consideration for a taxable supply made in Quebec, and the general registration duty does not reach a person who "is not resident in Québec and does not carry on any business in Québec" — but a separate specified registration system applies to a foreign specified supplier, a distribution-platform operator or an accommodation-platform operator once its threshold amount for any twelve-month period exceeds $30,000 on qualifying supplies to specified Quebec consumers, and such a person then collects the tax as mandatary of the Minister. [29] Two different $30,000 thresholds therefore exist in the Quebec sales-tax system, measured differently over different periods, and they should not be conflated with the federal one.

An honest limit: Revenu Québec's own administrative pages refused every automated request during this repository's research, from six distinct network paths, so Quebec's specified-registration procedure, its QST input-tax-refund mechanics and its filing frequencies are not stated here. Confirm them directly with Revenu Québec before relying on any of them. [29]

The sales-tax regime comparison sets out all thirteen jurisdictions, the non-resident rules and the filing calendars.

Registering a federal corporation in each of the four

A founder who incorporates federally still has to register in every province where the corporation conducts business; Corporations Canada says so directly and warns that each jurisdiction defines and administers registration differently. [17] The federal route does not escape these four provinces — it adds a layer on top of one of them, and the cost of that layer differs by an order of magnitude.

Ontario is free. A corporation from another Canadian jurisdiction is a Class 2 extra-provincial corporation, not a foreign one, so the Extra-Provincial Corporations Act licence does not apply. It files an initial return under the Corporations Information Act within 60 days, and "There is no statutory fee". [22] The agent-for-service duty in section 19(1) of that Act — "the continuing appointment, at all times" of an individual 18 or over resident in Ontario, or a corporation with its head or registered office in Ontario — falls on Class 3 corporations, those incorporated outside Canada. [36] A federal corporation appoints nobody.

Alberta charges $291.75 plus the uncapped agent charge, before or within 30 days of commencing business, and still demands an Alberta agent for service. [4] [57] Note one statutory asymmetry preserved rather than merged: section 20.1 requires a "resident Albertan" as statutorily defined for an Alberta corporation, while the extra-provincial rule in section 288 speaks of an individual who is "a resident of Alberta" — residence without the citizenship-or-permanent-residence overlay. The narrower reading is worth confirming with the Registrar before relying on it. Alberta's evidentiary bar is also higher than the others': charter documents "must be certified by a: company official; notary public; government official", a non-English charter from outside Canada needs "a notarized translation of the documents", and you must supply "proof of current corporation status in your home registration". [57] Budget weeks for apostilles, not days.

British Columbia charges $350 basic within two months and requires an attorney resident in British Columbia. Section 375(1) is broad — "A foreign entity must register as an extraprovincial company … within 2 months after the foreign entity begins to carry on business in British Columbia" — and "foreign entity" means formed outside British Columbia, so an Ontario or federal corporation is as much a foreign entity as a Delaware one. [3] The deeming provision in section 375(2) catches more than founders expect: a company is deemed to be carrying on business if its name "appears or is announced in any advertisement in which an address or telephone number in British Columbia is given", or if it is listed in a BC telephone directory with a BC address or number, or if it has a resident agent, warehouse, office or place of business there. A foreign company that buys a Vancouver phone number and puts it on its website has, on the face of the statute, done enough. Section 386 requires that the company "has one or more attorneys, or … under its charter … its head office is in British Columbia", each attorney being "an individual who is resident in British Columbia, or … a company" with a BC office address "at which the individual can usually be reached during statutory business hours". Losing the attorney without replacing them is a cancellation ground, and after cancellation "a foreign entity must cease carrying on business in British Columbia". BCBCA section 376(2) exempts a federal corporation from the name-reservation step, so the additional $30 shown on the registry's fee page should not apply — both positions are official and the reader should confirm which components are actually charged. [3] [12]

Quebec charges $397 within 60 days of commencing activities and requires an attorney residing in Quebec where the enterprise has no Quebec domicile, business address or establishment. [6] The question founders ask next is whether declaring an address for service removes that requirement, and the Registraire answers it in terms: "Any enterprise that has no domicile address, business address or establishment in Québec must declare a mandatary in the enterprise register to act on its behalf in Québec. This requirement applies even if the enterprise has declared an address for service." [62] An address service is not an attorney appointment, and no mail-handling arrangement can be one. Quebec's registration trigger is also presumptive rather than proved: section 25 presumes activity in Quebec where the person has an address in Quebec, or — directly or through a representative under a general mandate — has an establishment, a post office box or the use of a telephone line in Quebec, or performs any act for profit there. [6]

Quebec adds three matching conditions that catch stale filings: the enterprise's information "must already be published in another jurisdiction's register"; the name, domicile address and date of constitution declared in Quebec must match that register; and the enterprise must not have been dissolved. The Registraire "reserves the right to register or to refuse an enterprise's registration if any of these conditions are not met." [62] One carve-out exists: the mandatary requirement does not apply to construction contractors based in Ontario, who file on paper under the Québec–Ontario agreement.

A pattern follows: going federal does not relieve a non-resident of the local-presence problem in three of the four provinces. Alberta still wants an Alberta agent, British Columbia an attorney resident there, Quebec an attorney residing there unless the enterprise has a Quebec establishment. Only Ontario admits a corporation from another Canadian jurisdiction without an appointee — an asymmetry invisible in comparisons that treat federal incorporation as a way around provincial rules. The federal versus provincial comparison carries all thirteen jurisdictions.

If you will operate in more than one of the four

This is where the ranking changes most sharply, and where the usual advice is backwards.

The New West Partnership Trade Agreement binds British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. [83] Between those four, extra-provincial registration is free and duplicated annual reporting disappears. Alberta states it plainly for corporations coming in: "If your corporation's home jurisdiction is British Columbia, Manitoba or Saskatchewan … There is no cost to register or update your corporation in Alberta", filed through Alberta's own online extra-provincial channel rather than a registry agent. [57] British Columbia matches it from the other direction: the agreement "removes the need to file multiple registrations and reports between B.C., Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan", so businesses "don't need to: Pay business registry fees in B.C.; File annual reports in other provinces". [85] In Alberta's catalogue, the NWPTA products are the only corporate rows in the "No Government Fee & Capped Products" table, with a maximum service charge of 0.00 — the one place where Alberta caps a registry agent's charge at nothing. [16]

Three limits keep this from being a free lunch. Registration itself is not waived — you still search and reserve the name, for which a fee is required, and submit the registration through the other province's registry within two months of starting to do business there. The attorney or agent requirement survives: BC registrants must still "Have an attorney represent them in each province where they do business". And municipal licensing sits entirely outside the agreement. [85]

The consequence for this comparison is concrete. A British Columbia corporation expanding into Alberta pays nothing and files no Alberta annual return; an Alberta corporation expanding into British Columbia pays no BC registry fee and files no BC annual report. An Ontario or Quebec corporation doing the same pays $350 in British Columbia and $291.75 plus an uncapped agent charge in Alberta, and files annual reports in both. And a federal corporation gets no relief at all: the free lane is keyed to a home jurisdiction of BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba, and a CBCA corporation is from none of them. [84]

So a business that will operate across two or three western provinces is cheaper incorporated provincially in the west than federally — the opposite of the usual advice. Neither Ontario nor Quebec is a party, so a founder whose plan spans Toronto and Vancouver gets no help from the agreement in either direction.

Entrepreneur immigration, as at 6 September 2026

This row has changed most recently and is where superseded advice does the most damage. Three framing points before the detail. Owning a Canadian corporation confers no immigration status in any of the four. Immigration should never gate a corporate filing — a founder can own a company in all four while an application proceeds separately, or never applies at all. And every open entrepreneur route in the other three requires you to move, not merely to own; there is no version of any of them that can be run from abroad.

The contraction has a documented cause rather than an inferred one. IRCC's supplementary levels notice for 2024–2026 set a provincial nominee target of 120,000 for 2025; the notice for 2025–2027 set it at 55,000. [90] A province whose whole nomination allocation was more than halved does not protect a low-volume entrepreneur stream first.

Ontario is closed. The province's own program page states: "The new Ontario Workforce Priority stream has now launched, and all other streams are now closed." The single open stream is employer-driven — a foreign worker with a qualifying job offer, or a self-employed physician — with no entrepreneur or investor route. [31] An entrepreneur category still exists in Ontario's regulation, which is why old guides still describe it, but a regulation is not an intake, and no criteria or launch date for a replacement had been published. The Ontario guide records the finding.

British Columbia is open, with published thresholds and a pool. WelcomeBC publishes three business routes — Base, Regional, and Strategic Projects for foreign corporations establishing operations in the province — and the program guide, effective 27 May 2024, sets out what each requires:

All from the BC PNP program guide. [52] A full-time-equivalent is defined as "a position of at least 30 hours per week on average and 1,560 hours per year", and "Independent contractors will not be considered as part of your job creation requirement". Strategic Projects requires "a minimum equity investment of at least $500,000 CAD directed towards the corporation's operations in B.C." and three new full-time jobs per key staff member, to a maximum of five.

Fees are $300 to register, $3,500 to apply, $500 for a request for review and $1,000 per additional key staff member, payable only inside the BC PNP portal. A qualified registration "will be placed in a qualified pool where it will remain active for up to six months, or until you receive an invitation to apply" — registration does not guarantee an invitation. [32] The province also publishes what it will not consider: "bed and breakfasts, hobby farms and home-based businesses", real estate and insurance brokerage, and "goods trading businesses (e.g. import/export), unless value add is demonstrated". And the residence condition is decisive: the applicant must demonstrate an intention to reside within 50 kilometres of the business, measured "by the shortest available route by road", with travel that "must not require a journey across a body of water that would require a ferry trip of more than 30 minutes". [52] One correction worth carrying: the Regional stream is no longer a pilot — the program guide's own change log records "Removed references to 'pilot' as the Regional stream is now an ongoing part of the BC PNP".

Alberta is open but rationed, and publishes its capacity. The Alberta Advantage Immigration Program runs four entrepreneur streams, not the three usually reported — Rural Entrepreneur, Graduate Entrepreneur, Farm, and Foreign Graduate Entrepreneur — and the Rural Renewal stream often listed alongside them is a worker stream, which Alberta groups with its worker streams rather than its entrepreneur ones. [59] Only two are realistically reachable by a founder who has never lived in Canada:

The Graduate Entrepreneur stream requires two years of full-time study at an Alberta publicly funded institution and a valid post-graduation work permit, so it is not open to a founder abroad. The Rural stream additionally requires either three years as an active business owner or manager, or four years as a senior manager, in the past ten; a new business must create at least one full-time job for a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, not a relative, for at least six months; and it excludes passive investment, "property rental, investment, and leasing activities", real-estate and business brokerage, "project based or seasonal businesses", and home-based businesses not zoned commercially. Alberta will not help you visit: "The AAIP and the community will not provide you with a letter of support to obtain a visa for the exploratory visit." [59] The Foreign Graduate stream adds the line that ends most remote plans: "The proposed business must have a physical place of business in Alberta at all times." [60]

Both streams carry the same prohibition, in identical words: "You are required to reside in Alberta and be involved in the day-to-day management of the business. You may not do this remotely, from another Canadian province or territory, or from another country and you are required to demonstrate residence in Alberta while on a work permit." [59] AAIP is not a route to a Canadian company you visit. It is a route to moving.

Fees are $200 for an Entrepreneur Expression of Interest and $3,500 for a Business Application, with $150 for a letter of support — $3,850 before professional costs. [61] And the capacity numbers should be read together before treating "open" as "available": the 2026 entrepreneur allocation is 60 nominations, with 33 issued, 27 remaining and 217 applications in process, against a total 2026 AAIP allocation across all streams of 6,603 — under one per cent. Alberta declines to publish a processing time. [33]

Quebec is open, uncapped, gated on language, and sequenced backwards. Quebec runs its own selection rather than a nominee program — IRCC's own instructions record that "While Quebec does not have a provincial or territorial nominee program, special consideration is applicable on the basis of the Canada-Quebec Accord". The Programme des entrepreneurs has three streams — entreprise innovante, démarrage d'entreprise and repreneuriat — and each states « Vous pouvez présenter une demande en tout temps. Il n'y a pas de nombre maximal de demandes à recevoir ». [34]

The published conditions differ sharply by stream. Volet 1, entreprise innovante, requires at least 10% capital participation plus a service offer from an organisation specialised in innovation having an establishment in Québec, and publishes no minimum net worth and no start-up spending threshold. Volet 2, démarrage d'entreprise, requires at least 25% capital participation, a net worth of $600,000 excluding gifts received in the previous six months, start-up spending of $300,000 inside the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal or $150,000 outside it, two years of business management experience in the preceding five, and at most three business partners also applying. [65] The repreneuriat stream is named on the programme page but its financial conditions could not be retrieved, and none are stated here.

Across the streams: 18 years old, a secondary or vocational diploma, oral French at level 7 or higher on the Échelle québécoise, demonstrated by an accepted test result no more than two years old and required even of native French speakers; a financial self-sufficiency contract; a democratic and Québec values attestation obtained within 60 days of the request; and excluded sectors — payday loans, cheque cashing and pawnbroking; pornography and the sex industry; and real-estate trade, rental, brokerage, development or development work. That last exclusion ends a great many plans built around a Quebec property vehicle.

The sequencing is the finding that matters most for this page. An applicant meeting the general and profile conditions except the business-start-up and spending conditions receives an avis d'intention de sélection, which « vous permettra de faire une demande de permis de travail auprès du Gouvernement du Canada pour venir démarrer votre entreprise au Québec ». The business must then be started within two years of that work permit, and must have been registered for at least one year when the start-up documentation is submitted. [65] The Quebec registration precedes the selection certificate by at least a year. A founder who waits for immigration status before constituting the company has the order backwards.

"Open" is still not "available". Quebec's 2026 immigration plan targets 100 to 200 selection certificates in the business category — « Gens d'affaires : de 100 à 200 » — for the entire year, against 1,113 business-category selections in 2023, with 500 to 600 admissions planned. [66] An open intake into a target of one to two hundred certificates for a province of nine million is a long queue, not a timeline.

Read plainly: on 6 September 2026, a founder choosing a province for immigration reasons has three live options among the four — British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec — and Ontario is not one of them, with the federal Start-up Visa paused behind it. [35] Verify each program's page before committing money, and take advice from a licensed immigration practitioner. This page is research, not immigration advice.

Owning a company is not a right to work in it

This deserves separating out, because it is the single most common misunderstanding in the whole subject and it is province-neutral. There is no Social Insurance Number available to a non-resident owner with no work authorisation: a temporary resident must provide "your valid work permit, study permit or visitor record from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) that authorizes you to work". [75] None of the four provinces requires a director to hold one, and the CRA runs a separate business-number channel for applicants without one — but the absence bites at the bank counter.

Two temporary routes exist for an owner who genuinely needs to be in Canada, and both have tests that exclude most first-time founders. C11, for business owners seeking only temporary residence, rests on the "significant benefit" test; IRCC's instructions say issuance "should be considered only when the applicant controls at least 51% of the business in question", that "the period of work in Canada would normally not exceed 18 months", and that "foreign nationals cannot reside permanently in Canada simply because they are business owners" — adding that for business owners "the foreign national is both employer and employee. They must meet the requirements for both roles." [81] A note on that 51% figure: it appears in IRCC's C11 instructions and is reproduced here as published, but this repository's Ontario and British Columbia research records IRCC wording elsewhere assessing significant benefit "regardless of what percentage of the business in Canada is owned". Treat the threshold as the operative instruction and the tension as a reason to take advice, not as settled.

Intra-company transfer — now C61, C62 and C63, not the obsolete C12 still quoted in commercial content — is closed to a founder's first foreign venture: people who "own a controlling interest of the foreign enterprise … are not eligible as an ICT unless they are able to demonstrate that their enterprise meets the requirements of an MNC", and "an enterprise outside of Canada cannot become an MNC by using the ICT work permit category to establish their first foreign enterprise in Canada". [82]

The same instructions contain the one immigration rule that speaks directly to an address, and it is worth quoting exactly because it is routinely misreported: "Business operations with no physical commercial premises (i.e., businesses operating from a non-commercial/residential location or virtual businesses using a mailing address in commercial locations such as malls) are not eligible to transfer ICTs to Canada." For shared premises, officers weigh a shared receptionist, the company name in the building directory, a direct phone line answered by company staff, the address published on the website, a dedicated space where employees work and clients are met, a business licence, and public accessibility. [82] The exclusion is not co-working as such; it is a virtual business using a mailing address.

There is one further honest limit, and every province guide in this repository records it identically: no official source states affirmatively that a person outside Canada may own or direct a Canadian corporation without immigration status. What the record establishes is narrower — that none of these four provinces imposes a residency condition on a director or a shareholder, and that immigration rules govern working in Canada rather than owning a Canadian company. This page does not carry the inference further.

Five founder profiles, each priced over five years in all four provinces

Every table below counts government fees only, in Canadian dollars, for five years of existence. Professional fees, registered-office and records-office arrangements, agent-for-service and attorney appointments, registry-agent service charges and accounting are excluded, because no government publishes them — and the excluded items are precisely where the four differ most. Each table is followed by the unpriced line, because a total that omits it is not a total.

Profile 1 — Solo remote founder selling online, no Canadian staff, no plan to move

The commonest case: one non-resident, sole shareholder and sole director, a named company, one province, no employees, kept alive five years.

Default: Ontario if the company will be marginally profitable and privacy matters; Alberta if it will be genuinely profitable and you have an Albertan; British Columbia if remote filing certainty matters most. The reasoning is the arithmetic in the tax section: the $627 five-year fee gap between Ontario and Quebec is real but small, and the 3.5-point combined-rate gap between Ontario and Alberta is worth $3,500 a year per $100,000 of taxable income. Fees decide this profile only while it makes no money.

Profile 2 — The same founder, but taking a numbered company

Identical facts, except the corporation takes a number name. This removes the one line nobody will quote you.

This is the single most useful table on the page for a founder in a hurry. Taking a number name makes three of the four totals complete: Ontario at $300, British Columbia at $574.45 and Quebec at $715 are the whole government cost of five years of corporate existence, with nothing unpublished left in them. Alberta's remains incomplete for the same reason it always does. A trade name can be registered later once the brand is settled.

Basis for the five-year Quebec total used across this guide. The year of constitution plus four further years, registry fees only, everything filed on time. RE-101 note 5 waives the annual registration fee in the year following the year of registration, so the $106 duty falls in three of the five years rather than five: $397 + $0 + $106 × 3 = $715. A name reservation is optional and adds $27. [18]

Profile 3 — Foreign parent opening a Canadian subsidiary

A foreign company incorporates a Canadian subsidiary it controls, intending real operations — staff, premises, customers — in the chosen province within a year or two.

The fee table is identical to Profile 1, and it is the least important part of the decision. Four things dominate instead:

• CCPC status is gone in all four, so the small-business rate is not part of the comparison and the general rate is. On $500,000 of active business income the province choice moves the bill by up to $20,000 a year. [30]
• Where the operations will be decides the province, because a permanent establishment there is what triggers the provincial tax anyway. The federal deeming rule at Regulation 400(2)(e.1) — "if, but for this paragraph, a corporation would not have a permanent establishment, the corporation is deemed to have a permanent establishment at the place designated in its incorporating documents or bylaws as its head office or registered office" — exists solely to allocate taxable income among provinces under subsection 124(4), and says nothing about treaty permanent establishment. [73]
• Registering the parent itself is an alternative in Quebec, which treats a legal person not constituted in Québec as the same legal person rather than creating a new one — but only with an attorney residing there. [62]
• British Columbia has a route designed for this shape: the Strategic Projects stream, for foreign corporations establishing operations in the province, at a minimum equity investment of $500,000 and three new full-time jobs per key staff member to a maximum of five. [52]

Default: decide the footprint first, then take the province where the operations will sit. If the footprint is genuinely undecided, British Columbia is the only one of the four with an immigration route built for a foreign corporation.

Profile 4 — Founder who intends to immigrate and run the business in person

Default: British Columbia, Alberta or Quebec — never Ontario. Beyond that the choice is made by the three gates rather than by preference: French at level 7 decides Quebec on its own; Alberta's published allocation of 60 against 217 in process may make British Columbia's pool the faster queue; and Alberta's rural definition — a community under 100,000 people outside the Calgary and Edmonton census metropolitan areas — decides whether its cheapest route is even geographically available to your business. Note the corporate fees are rounding error against the capital commitments; on this profile, do not let a $627 fee difference influence anything.

Profile 5 — Operating in all four provinces from the start

A single company that will carry on business in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec. Five years, government fees only. This is where the New West Partnership rewrites the answer.

Federal fees from Corporations Canada's published schedule; the NWPTA zeroes from Alberta's and British Columbia's own pages. [67] [57] [85]

Two findings, and the second is the one nobody publishes. First, a western home jurisdiction is roughly $800 cheaper over five years than an eastern or federal one for a four-province footprint, entirely because of the New West Partnership. Second, federal incorporation is not the cheap multi-province answer — at $2,318.45 it is the second most expensive option in the table, because it buys no NWPTA relief and still pays full freight in British Columbia and Alberta. That inverts the advice a multi-province founder is usually given.

Three caveats keep this honest. British Columbia's extraprovincial annual report obligation under BCBCA section 380 runs from the anniversary of registration; a separate fee for it is not verified here, and the $44.89 above is the BC company annual report. The $30 name component in the British Columbia set-up may not apply to a federal corporation under section 376(2), which is why the federal row is a range in practice. And in every row, Alberta's share is a government fee attached to an unpublished agent charge.

Profile 6 — Privacy-sensitive holding company with no Canadian operations

Included because it is asked constantly and the honest answer is short. Registry privacy differs sharply across the four — Alberta has no beneficial-ownership register at all, Ontario and British Columbia keep private internal ones, Quebec publishes — but three facts flatten the difference.

The bank does not care what the registry publishes. FINTRAC-regulated institutions identify beneficial owners at 25% and must trace to natural persons regardless. [78] Alberta's privacy is friction, not confidentiality: any person may inspect the securities register at the records office on payment of a reasonable fee. [4] And all three private-register provinces have announced a move toward filing, one of them toward publication, on timetables none of them will state. [37] [44] [58]

Default: choose on the operating facts, not on privacy, and assume today's privacy position is temporary. If public ownership is genuinely unacceptable, the only firm conclusion available on the verification date is a negative one: not Quebec.

When federal incorporation beats all four

Three situations, and only three. When the corporation needs a single name usable nationally, because provincial name approval has no reach beyond that province. When the founder wants the home jurisdiction to be independent of where the office happens to be. And when the corporation will operate in three or more provinces outside the New West Partnership group — because inside it, as Profile 5 shows, a western provincial incorporation is cheaper. In all three the federal board still needs at least one resident Canadian on a board of fewer than four [8], so for a founder who has nobody, federal is not an option at all.

The maintenance calendar, in all four

Two calendars: what falls due in the first year, and what repeats. Every date below is the province's own, and the federal lines apply wherever you incorporate.

First year

Every year thereafter

The shape of that calendar is itself a comparison. Ontario keys its annual filing to the tax year, British Columbia and Alberta to the incorporation anniversary, and Quebec to two different dates. A founder running companies in more than one of them is running more than one calendar, and the anniversary-based ones are the easiest to forget because nothing in the accounting cycle prompts them.

Corporate residence, and the thing you cannot fix by choosing a province

One question sits underneath all four columns and is not a provincial question at all. A corporation incorporated in Canada after 26 April 1965 "shall be deemed to have been resident in Canada throughout a taxation year". [69] Where you live, where the board meets and where the customers are do not change that, and Canadian residence means worldwide income is taxable under Part I. A treaty will not usually undo it either: the CRA states that "the tiebreaker rules (usually within Article IV) in tax treaties generally provide that if a corporation is a resident of both contracting states, it is deemed to be a resident of the state in which the corporation was created" — which for any of these four is Canada. [91]

The common-law test runs alongside and cuts both ways. The CRA's position is that "a company is resident in the country in which its central management and control is exercised", that this usually abides where the directors meet, and that what matters "is not where central management and control is exercised according to the articles of incorporation, but where it is actually exercised". [91] So incorporate in one of these four and you are Canadian-resident wherever you meet; incorporate abroad and run the board from Canada and you may become Canadian-resident anyway. All four provinces expressly permit remote board meetings, and doing so is lawful — but it is not a route out. Keep clean minutes of where directors actually met, and do not try to look foreign.

The word "permanent establishment" carries at least three separate meanings in this area and a conclusion under one is not evidence about the others: the federal provincial-allocation rule in Regulation 400(2)(e.1), confined by its own subsection 400(1) to the definition of taxable income earned in a province under subsection 124(4) [73]; each province's own charging provision, such as Quebec's Taxation Act, which reaches a corporation "having an establishment in Québec at any time in a taxation year"; and treaty permanent establishment, which is a separate test with its own case law. Whether a registered-office or mail-handling arrangement alone creates a treaty permanent establishment is a question no official source reviewed in this repository answers, and this page does not generalise from a deeming rule written for another purpose. Anyone who answers it without first asking which of the three questions you mean is guessing.

Failure modes

Readiness checklist

Work down it in order; the first four items are the ones that fail after money has been spent.

• The local-presence arrangement exists and is contracted — an Ontario or Quebec address, two attended British Columbia offices, or a consenting resident Albertan agent for service plus an Alberta registered office.
• For Alberta, an alternative agent for service is appointed at a different address. The government fee is $0.00.
• You know who physically receives registry mail, how fast it reaches you, and what happens if it is returned undeliverable.
• The immigration question has been separated from the corporate question, and nothing in the plan depends on a stream that was open last year.
• The name decision is made: a compliant French name for Quebec, an Ontario-biased Nuans report, a BC Name Request, an Alberta NUANS — or a number name in any of them, which removes the step entirely.
• The name report or reservation will still be valid on the day the articles are filed, not the day they are drafted.
• Directors' passport scans are ready if the province is Quebec.
• The official corporate email address points at a mailbox the corporation owns.
• You have asked the registry, or your intermediary, whether a person outside Canada can obtain the account or credential the portal requires — because three of the four do not publish the answer.
• For Alberta, you hold a written, itemised quote covering the incorporation, each annual return and each $0.00-government-fee change notice.
• The tax model uses the general rate, not the small-business rate, and a two-month balance-due day.
• The second corporate return is budgeted if the province is Alberta or Quebec.
• The $30,000 worldwide small-supplier threshold has been tested, and the GST/HST security deposit provisioned.
• The four British Columbia PST out-of-province scenarios have been run against your actual selling pattern.
• The ownership chart traces to natural persons through every layer, because a bank will require it whatever the registry publishes.
• The registry deadline is in a calendar separate from the accountant's, keyed to the right event — the tax year in Ontario, the incorporation anniversary in British Columbia and Alberta, two different dates in Quebec.

Glossary

Terms the four provinces use for the same idea, or the same word for different ideas.

• Agent for service (Alberta) — an individual located in Alberta who accepts notices and documents in person or by mail, who must be a resident Albertan, must be a natural person rather than a firm, and must consent. Not a lawyer requirement. [57]
• Annual report (British Columbia) — the yearly registry filing due within two months after each anniversary of recognition. Not a financial statement, and not Ontario's annual return, which runs on the taxation-year cycle. [41]
• Annual return (Ontario, Alberta) — Ontario's is a Corporations Information Act filing due six months after the taxation year end at no fee; Alberta's is due the last day of the month after the anniversary month at $53.05. Same words, different statutes, different clocks.
• Attorney (British Columbia) — an individual resident in British Columbia, or a company, appointed by an extraprovincial company to receive service. Nothing to do with a power of attorney. [3]
• Bénéficiaire ultime / ultimate beneficiary (Quebec) — the natural person meeting any one of five disjunctive conditions; name, condition and percentage are publicly consultable. [6]
• CCPC — Canadian-controlled private corporation. A tax status, not a corporate-law one, and the gate on every small-business rate in this comparison. Non-resident control defeats it. [30]
• clicSÉQUR / Mon bureau (Quebec) — the government authentication service and the Registraire's authenticated space. Express access needs the ten-digit NEQ plus an eight-character code that is posted automatically and cannot be applied for. [63]
• Company key (Ontario) — a nine-digit code, issued free to the official corporate email, that establishes authority to file. A signing credential, not a reference number; sharing it is how an intermediary obtains delegated authority. [9]
• Completing party (British Columbia) — the individual who examines the endorsed articles and incorporation agreement before filing, designates the incorporators, and afterwards delivers the originals to the records office. [41]
• Constitution vs immatriculation (Quebec) — constitution creates a new legal person under the QBCA and registers it automatically; immatriculation registers an already-existing legal form, including a federal or foreign corporation, which "remains the same legal person".
• Delivery address vs mailing address (British Columbia) — the delivery address is a physical BC location open to the public 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and never a PO box; the mailing address is where the annual-report reminder, the dissolution notice and the company access code go.
• Extra-provincial classes (Ontario) — Class 1 is another province's corporation, Class 2 federal or territorial, Class 3 incorporated outside Canada. Only Class 3 needs an Ontario licence and an Ontario agent for service. [36]
• Foreign entity (British Columbia) — under Part 11, any entity formed outside British Columbia, including a federal or another province's corporation. Not only one formed outside Canada. [3]
• Head office / siège (Quebec) — the QBCA office that must be "permanently located in Québec", where the section 31 records are kept. Ontario, BC and Alberta call their equivalent a registered office.
• NEQ (Quebec) — the ten-digit Quebec enterprise number assigned on registration or constitution, and one of the two inputs to clicSÉQUR Express.
• Nuans / NUANS — a name-search report from the federal Newly Upgraded Automated Name Search system. Ontario requires an Ontario-biased one; Alberta an Alberta one; British Columbia and Quebec use neither. Sold privately in Ontario and Alberta, at no published price.
• Number name / designating number — a corporate name assigned as a number. Removes the name step and its unpriced report in all four.
• Records office (British Columbia, Alberta) — the second office designation. In British Columbia it is mandatory and may share a location with the registered office; in Alberta it is optional, and if not designated the registered office silently becomes it. [4]
• Recognition date (British Columbia) — the date of incorporation, amalgamation or continuation into BC, from which the annual-report anniversary runs. An amalgamated company gets a new one.
• Registry agent (Alberta) — the private, authorised intermediary through which every Alberta corporate filing passes. Service levels 1 to 3; "Service fees are not regulated and may vary from one agent to another." [54]
• Resident Albertan (Alberta) — a Canadian citizen ordinarily resident in Alberta, or a permanent resident within the meaning of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act ordinarily resident in Alberta. Distinct from the plain "resident of Alberta" used for an extra-provincial corporation's alternative agent. [4]
• Significant individual (British Columbia) / individual with significant control (Ontario, federal) / ultimate beneficiary (Quebec) — three names for overlapping but non-identical tests. Do not carry one province's analysis into another's filing.
• Small supplier vs small seller — "small supplier" is a GST/HST status measured on worldwide taxable supplies of $30,000; "small seller" is a BC PST status requiring under $10,000 of retail revenue, no established commercial premises, and being located in BC. Unrelated.
• Uncapped product (Alberta) — a registry-agent product for which Alberta fixes the government fee and places no ceiling on the agent's service charge. Every corporate registry product is uncapped except the New West Partnership rows. [16]

The Quebec-specific angle: a Montreal registered office

One fact here is specific to where 2727 Coworking is. A Montreal address can lawfully be the statutory office of a Quebec corporation, because the QBCA requires only that the head office be permanently located in Québec with the records kept there [5], and it can be the registered office of a federal corporation whose articles state Quebec. That is the whole of the claim, and it is what 2727 sells.

It follows, and matters more, that a Montreal address is not and cannot become an Ontario registered office, a British Columbia registered or records office, or an Alberta registered office: Ontario requires the office and records in Ontario and the ministry adds that it "must be a physical location in Ontario" [1] [38], British Columbia requires both offices at British Columbia locations open to the public in business hours with the Form 1 province field pre-printed "BC" [13], and Alberta requires a physical Alberta location plus a resident-Albertan agent for service [4]. A founder who files a Montreal address into any of those three records has filed something the statute does not permit, and the remedy is to change the address rather than argue about it.

Two Quebec-specific cautions attach even where the address role is lawful. First, section 25 of the Act respecting the legal publicity of enterprises presumes activity in Quebec from a Quebec address, establishment, post office box or telephone line, or any act for profit there — so an out-of-province enterprise that acquires a Montreal address may have created a Quebec registration duty it did not intend. [6] Second, whether a business using only a mailing or registered-office address, with no physical operations, needs a Montreal occupancy permit is not published: the City's pages are framed around occupying premises, the permit is issued by the borough, and the fee is set per borough rather than city-wide with published amounts differing materially between boroughs. Ask the borough rather than inferring an answer either way. [86]

For a corporation in Ontario, British Columbia or Alberta a Montreal address remains a mailing and correspondence address, and a workspace where the plan includes one. It is not a registered office, a records office, an agent for service, a permanent establishment or anyone's residence.

What 2727 can and cannot support

2727 Coworking is in Griffintown, Montreal. A selected 2727 business-address service can provide a Montreal address, mail handling and workspace access on the terms stated in its agreement, and that agreement evidences the commercial relationship it actually describes.

For a Quebec corporation, and for a federal corporation whose articles name Quebec as the province of its registered office, a Montreal address can lawfully occupy the statutory office role — subject to the plan permitting that use and the records genuinely being kept where the corporation says they are. For a corporation in Ontario, British Columbia or Alberta it cannot, because those provinces require the office inside their own borders and Alberta additionally requires an agent for service holding Canadian status and living there.

2727 does not certify that any address is a valid registered office, records office, agent for service, attorney, permanent establishment, CRA physical address or personal residence. It does not appoint a Quebec attorney, act as an Alberta agent, complete extra-provincial registration, determine corporate residence or CCPC status, or guarantee any bank's or registry's decision. No registry, bank or government body is described anywhere on this page as accepting a 2727 document — and on the banking question the record is a negative one: no official or institutional source reviewed commits any bank to opening an account for a non-resident-owned corporation, remotely or at all, and FINTRAC's own guidance states that "It is not enough to only view a person and their government-issued photo identification document through a video conference or another type of virtual application." [92]

Founders abroad should start with the founder-outside-Canada track and the non-resident research, then read opening a business account from abroad before booking travel; founders already in Canada belong on the founder-inside-Canada track. The detail behind every row is in the Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec guides, with the non-resident sequence for each in the Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec non-resident guides. Sales tax has its own comparison in HST vs GST+PST vs QST, and the federal question in federal vs provincial incorporation. The cluster hub indexes all of it.

Research method and limitations

This page was verified on 7 September 2026. It is a synthesis rather than a fresh research pass: every fact on it comes from an official source that was fetched and recorded during this repository's own province, non-resident and track research on 6 and 7 September 2026, and each claim is mapped back to the sibling evidence row it came from in research/non-resident-province-comparison-source-pack.md and research/non-resident-province-comparison-evidence.md. Sources are restricted to tiers one to five — statutes and regulations on official legislation sites, the four registries' own pages and forms, the CRA, Revenu Québec, Alberta Tax and Revenue Administration and provincial finance ministries, IRCC, MIFI and the provincial immigration programs, and FINTRAC. Law-firm, accountant and incorporation-service pages were not used to support any statement.

Because this is a synthesis, the sibling records were cross-checked for disagreement first, and the brief permitted a direct re-fetch only where two of them disagreed on a fact this page relies on. Three disagreements were found and are handled here rather than smoothed away. The New West Partnership Trade Agreement URL is written .htm in some sibling guides and .asp in others; both were fetched directly on 7 September 2026 and both return HTTP 200, so the .htm form is used and no substantive question arises. Alberta's AAIP processing page is dated 12 August 2026 in one sibling guide and 25 August 2026 in another, with identical figures; the later date is adopted, as the Alberta non-resident research does. And the C11 51% control threshold is reproduced as IRCC publishes it in the C11 instructions, while the page records that other IRCC wording assesses significant benefit "regardless of what percentage of the business in Canada is owned" — the tension is disclosed rather than resolved.

Two conflicts inside the official record are carried forward for the same reason. British Columbia's fee page shows a $30 name-approval component alongside the $350 extraprovincial registration, while BCBCA section 376(2) exempts a federal corporation from the name-reservation step; both are stated and the reader is told to confirm which components are charged. And British Columbia publishes two current figures for a standard name request — "about 7 to 14 days" on the incorporated-companies page updated 10 June 2026, and "Review and approval — 4 business days" on the processing-times page updated 12 August 2026. Both are quoted with their dates and neither is preferred.

Several items are absent because no official source publishes them. There is no price for the Ontario or Alberta name-search report, neither being a government product — established for Alberta negatively, by searching the catalogue that lists every corporate registry government fee and finding no NUANS entry. There is no Alberta registry-agent service charge, that charge being unregulated and uncapped on every corporate product except the New West Partnership rows. Alberta publishes no service standard or processing time for any Corporate Registry filing, and British Columbia publishes none for a plain incorporation. No end-to-end timeline from incorporation to a working bank account exists, and no bank commits to opening an account for a non-resident-owned corporation. Ontario does not publish whether a person outside Canada may create the Ontario.ca Login and Ontario Business Account its registry requires; Quebec does not publish whether the clicSÉQUR access code can be posted outside Canada; British Columbia does not publish whether a non-resident can complete a Business BCeID, though its no-login filing path makes that question avoidable. Whether a foreign-issued payment card or a foreign-drawn cheque is accepted is unpublished in Ontario and unaddressed in British Columbia. Revenu Québec's administrative pages refused every automated request during the sibling research, so Quebec's specified-registration procedure, its QST input-tax-refund mechanics and its filing frequencies are not stated here. And no official source states affirmatively that a person outside Canada may own or direct a Canadian corporation without immigration status — the record is narrower, establishing only that none of these four provinces imposes a residency condition on a director or shareholder, and that immigration rules govern working in Canada rather than owning a Canadian company.

Every combined federal-plus-provincial tax rate on this page, and every dollar figure derived from one, is arithmetic performed here on two separately published rates. No government tabulates a combined rate, and the CRA's own provincial table excludes Quebec and Alberta because neither has a corporation tax collection agreement with the CRA. The five-year cost tables are likewise arithmetic on published government fees, and each is followed by the unpriced items it necessarily omits.

Nothing here was tested. No incorporation, name reservation, extra-provincial registration, tax account, immigration application or bank application was filed, so every timeline quoted is a registry's published service target rather than an observed result. Immigration positions are the most perishable content on the page and were true on 6 September 2026 only; the pending transparency registers in Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta are the claims most likely to expire next. This is educational planning material, not legal, tax, accounting, immigration or banking advice.

Frequently asked questions

Which of the four provinces is easiest for a non-resident to incorporate in?

British Columbia, on the row that decides whether you can act at all: it is the only one of the four that publishes a filing path requiring no account, stating that services under "No Login Required" are "available to all of the Corporate Registry's customers without the necessity of logging in" and that you pay by credit card [46]. Ontario and Quebec are close behind — both need only an address inside the province rather than a person, and Ontario is cheapest at $300 to create and $0 a year to maintain [10]. Alberta is last, because there is no route that does not run through an Alberta intermediary.

Do any of the four require a Canadian director?

No. Ontario and Alberta repealed their requirements, British Columbia never had one, and Quebec's section 108 admits any natural person subject only to capacity [1] [4] [2] [5]. Federal incorporation is the one that does, requiring at least 25% resident Canadians and at least one on a board of fewer than four [8]. One trap: Alberta's repeal reached the Business Corporations Act only — Alberta co-operatives still require that "At least 25% of the board of directors must be resident Canadians" [56].

Why is Alberta harder than the others if it has the lowest tax rates?

Because Alberta is the only one of the four that requires a person rather than an address. Section 20.1(1) requires an agent for service who is a "resident Albertan", defined as a Canadian citizen or permanent resident ordinarily resident in Alberta — so a foreign national on an Alberta work permit does not qualify, and neither does a Canadian citizen in Toronto [4]. It is also the only one where the founder cannot file: every corporate filing goes through a registry agent whose charge is unregulated, and Alberta publishes no processing time for any of it [15] [54].

Can I use a mailbox as the registered office in any of the four?

No. Alberta prohibits a designated post office box for the registered or records office and requires public accessibility in normal business hours [4]. British Columbia states for both of its offices that the delivery address "must not be a post office box" and must be open to the public 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on business days [13]. Ontario requires the office and the records in Ontario and adds that it "must be a physical location in Ontario. A P.O. Box alone is not acceptable" [38], and Quebec requires the head office permanently in Québec with the records there [5].

Will I get the small-business rate as a foreign owner?

No, and splitting the shares does not help. All four small-business rates require Canadian-controlled private corporation status, and section 125(7) excludes both a corporation controlled by non-resident persons and one that would be controlled if every non-resident-held share were held by a single notional person [68] [30]. A foreign-controlled company pays the general rate — 8% in Alberta, 11.5% in Ontario and Quebec, 12.0% in British Columbia — on top of the federal 15% [25] [71]. It also pays a month earlier: the three-month balance-due day requires CCPC status throughout the year [72].

How much does five years of corporate existence actually cost in each?

For a numbered company with no employees, the government fees are complete and comparable: Ontario $300, British Columbia $574.45, Quebec $715, and Alberta $557.00 plus six uncapped registry-agent service charges that no official source prices [10] [12] [18] [16]. Take a named company and Ontario and Alberta both acquire an unpriced name-search report. None of those differences should decide anything for a profitable company: the combined-rate gap between Alberta and British Columbia is worth $20,000 a year at the $500,000 business limit.

Does my company name have to be in French in Quebec?

Yes. Section 63 of the Charter of the French language requires an enterprise name in French, section 64 makes a French name a condition of obtaining juridical personality, and section 68 permits a non-French version only where the French appears at least as prominently when it is used [7]. In practice the generic element must be French: "Northwind" alone will not pass, "Studio Northwind" can. None of the other three provinces has a language rule — and Quebec's obligations continue past the name, with a French-capability declaration at 5 to 24 employees since 1 June 2025 and OQLF francization registration at 25 [19].

Can I complete everything from outside Canada, or will I have to travel?

Filing, probably yes in three of the four; keeping control of the file afterwards is the harder half. British Columbia publishes a no-login incorporation path [46]; Quebec contemplates filing and card payment without an authenticated account, but the credential that later opens Mon bureau is "transmis automatiquement par la poste" to the registered enterprise, with no self-service application [63]; Ontario requires accounts whose eligibility rules it does not publish, with an intermediary route as the documented alternative [40]; and Alberta requires an intermediary in all cases [15]. No source reviewed requires a founder to attend in person in any of the four, and none promises that a bank account can be opened without attending.

If I incorporate federally, do I still have to deal with these four provinces?

Yes, wherever the corporation conducts business, and the local-presence problem does not disappear. Alberta still requires an Alberta agent for service, British Columbia an attorney resident in the province, and Quebec an attorney residing there where the enterprise has no Quebec domicile, business address or establishment — a requirement that "applies even if the enterprise has declared an address for service" [4] [3] [62]. Ontario is the exception: a corporation from another Canadian jurisdiction files an initial return with no statutory fee and appoints nobody [22].

Which of the four should I choose if I want to move to Canada?

Not Ontario, on the verification date. Ontario states that every stream but the employer-driven Workforce Priority stream is closed, with no entrepreneur route [31], and the federal Start-up Visa was paused on 30 June 2026 [35]. British Columbia's routes are open with published thresholds — $600,000 net worth and $200,000 investment for the Base stream, $300,000 and $100,000 for the Regional stream — and a six-month qualified pool [52]. Alberta's are open but capped at 60 nominations for 2026 against 217 applications in process [33]. Quebec's are uncapped but require oral French at level 7 and target 100 to 200 certificates for the whole business category [34] [66]. Every open route requires you to move: Alberta's streams say "You may not do this remotely", and British Columbia's require residence within 50 kilometres of the business [59].

Which of the four keeps my ownership private?

Alberta today, and only in a limited sense. Alberta has no beneficial-ownership register at all [4]; Ontario and British Columbia require an internal register that is not filed and not public [1] [14]; Quebec publishes name, condition and percentage, and the home address unless a professional address is declared [20]. Two qualifications matter. Alberta's privacy is friction rather than confidentiality: any person may inspect the securities register at the records office on payment of a reasonable fee [4]. And all three private-register provinces have legislated or consulted on moving toward filing, one of them toward publication, with no commencement dates published [37] [44] [58].

Can a Montreal address be my registered office?

Only for a Quebec corporation, or a federal corporation whose articles state Quebec as the province of its registered office, because the QBCA requires only that the head office be permanently located in Québec [5]. It cannot be an Ontario registered office, a British Columbia registered or records office, or an Alberta registered office, because each of those provinces requires the office inside its own borders [1] [13] [4]. For those three it is a mailing and correspondence address only. Note also that a Quebec address can itself create a Quebec registration duty for an out-of-province enterprise, because section 25 presumes activity in Quebec from an address, establishment, post office box or telephone line there [6].

Official references

1. Ontario e-Laws: Business Corporations Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. B.16
2. BC Laws: Business Corporations Act, Part 5 — Directors and officers
3. BC Laws: Business Corporations Act, Part 11 — Extraprovincial companies
4. Alberta King's Printer: Business Corporations Act, RSA 2000 c B-9
5. LégisQuébec: Business Corporations Act, CQLR c. S-31.1
6. LégisQuébec: Act respecting the legal publicity of enterprises, CQLR c. P-44.1
7. LégisQuébec: Charter of the French language, CQLR c. C-11
8. Justice Canada: Canada Business Corporations Act, section 105
9. ServiceOntario: Ontario Business Registry
10. ServiceOntario: cost and time required to register, change or search for a business name, corporation or not-for-profit
11. BC Registries: incorporated companies
12. BC Registries: forms, fees and information packages
13. BC Registries: Form 1 incorporation application and notice of articles instructions
14. Province of British Columbia: transparency register
15. Alberta: incorporate an Alberta corporation
16. Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction: registry agent product catalogue, September 2026
17. Corporations Canada: register a federal corporation in a province or territory
18. Registraire des entreprises: Tarifs et modalités de paiement (RE-101), 2026
19. Québec: constituer une société par actions
20. Québec: renseignements à déclarer sur les bénéficiaires ultimes
21. Québec: pièces d'identité des administrateurs
22. Ontario: Notice — Corporations Information Act — filing an initial return and notice of change, extra-provincial corporations
23. Ontario Ministry of Finance: corporate income tax rates
24. BC Ministry of Finance: corporate income tax rates
25. Alberta: corporate income tax
26. Ministère des Finances du Québec: Information Bulletin 2026-3
27. Canada Revenue Agency: charge and collect the GST/HST
28. Province of British Columbia: provincial sales tax
29. Revenu Québec: basic rules for applying the GST/HST and QST
30. Canada Revenue Agency: type of corporation
31. Government of Ontario: Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program
32. WelcomeBC: BC PNP for entrepreneurs and businesses
33. Alberta: AAIP processing information
34. Québec: programme des entrepreneurs
35. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: Start-up Visa Program
36. Ontario e-Laws: Extra-Provincial Corporations Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. E.27
37. Ontario e-Laws: Corporations Information Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.39
38. Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement: Notice — Business Corporations Act — incorporating a business corporation
39. Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement: Notice — Corporations Information Act — filing an annual return
40. ServiceOntario: Ontario Business Registry — all services
41. BC Laws: Business Corporations Act, Part 2 — Incorporation, company offices and company records
42. BC Laws: Business Corporations Act, Part 4.1 — Transparency register
43. BC Laws: Business Corporations Act, Part 12 — Administration, offences and penalties
44. BC Laws: Bill 20 – 2023, Business Corporations Amendment Act, 2023
45. BC Registries: Maintaining Your B.C. Company (INFO 36)
46. BC Registries: Corporate Online frequently asked questions
47. Province of British Columbia: about BCeID
48. BC Registries: approval of a business name
49. BC Registries: processing times
50. BC Ministry of Finance: Bulletin PST 001, registering to collect PST
51. Province of British Columbia: register to collect provincial sales tax
52. BC PNP: Entrepreneur Immigration program guide
53. Alberta King's Printer: Business Corporations Regulation, AR 118/2000
54. Alberta: find a business registry
55. Alberta: annual returns for corporations, cooperatives and organizations
56. Alberta: change notices for corporations, cooperatives and organizations
57. Alberta: register an out-of-province corporation
58. Alberta: beneficial ownership engagement
59. Alberta: AAIP Rural Entrepreneur Stream eligibility
60. Alberta: AAIP Foreign Graduate Entrepreneur Stream eligibility
61. Alberta: AAIP fee schedule
62. Québec: register a legal person not constituted in Québec
63. Québec: accéder à Mon bureau au Registraire des entreprises
64. Québec: annual updating declaration
65. Québec: conditions, Programme des entrepreneurs — volet démarrage d'entreprise
66. Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration: Plan annuel d'immigration 2026
67. Corporations Canada: services, fees and processing times
68. Justice Canada: Income Tax Act, section 125
69. Justice Canada: Income Tax Act, section 250
70. Justice Canada: Excise Tax Act, section 148
71. Canada Revenue Agency: corporation tax rates
72. Canada Revenue Agency: balance-due day
73. Justice Canada: Income Tax Regulations, section 400
74. Canada Revenue Agency: register as a non-resident doing business in Canada
75. Service Canada: Social Insurance Number for temporary residents
76. Canada Revenue Agency: Guide RC4027, doing business in Canada — GST/HST information for non-residents
77. Canada Revenue Agency: when to register for and start charging the GST/HST
78. FINTRAC: beneficial ownership requirements
79. Canada Revenue Agency: register as a resident with a Canadian business
80. Corporations Canada: file your individuals with significant control information
81. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: business owners seeking only temporary residence, R205(a) C11
82. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: intra-company transferees, R205(a) C61, C62, C63
83. New West Partnership Trade Agreement: the agreement
84. Alberta: register a corporation in British Columbia, Saskatchewan or Manitoba
85. BC Registries: New West Partnership Trade Agreement
86. Ville de Montréal: occupancy permit for commercial, industrial or professional activity
87. City of Vancouver: get a business licence
88. City of Calgary: 2026 business licence fee schedule
89. City of Toronto: business regulations, licences and permits
90. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada: update on immigration measures for entrepreneurs
91. Canada Revenue Agency: residency of a corporation
92. FINTRAC: methods to verify the identity of persons and entities