Kubr Research · Last reviewed 3 November 2026

Canada Company Search: Federal & Provincial Registries

Federal and provincial registers, and the lien searches that sit apart from them.

Canada has no single national register of companies. Corporations Canada holds federal corporations; each province and territory keeps its own register for the companies it creates. A thorough check of a Canadian company therefore begins with working out which register it sits on. This article covers the federal search, the Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec registries, and the personal property security searches that show liens.

Step 1: Which register?

Ask the company under which statute it was incorporated, and check the answer against the registers. A company can be federal (for example under the Canada Business Corporations Act) or provincial. A mismatch between the statute the company names and the register where it appears is a question to ask.

Federal: Corporations Canada

The Corporations Canada database is described by the agency as the source to confirm the existence of a corporation created under a federal corporate law. You can search by corporate name, by corporation number or by the first nine digits of the Business Number, and filter by province of registered office, status and governing legislation. Status values include active, inactive (amalgamated), inactive (discontinued) and dissolved. The database does not include provincial or territorial corporations, foreign corporations or federally regulated financial corporations such as banks and insurers. After a transaction with Corporations Canada the database can take several hours to reflect the update.

Provincial registries

Ontario. The Ontario Business Registry is the province’s system for business registrations and corporate filings. Reports and certificates may carry a fee; check the current fee on the registry site.
British Columbia. BC Registries holds corporate records for BC companies. The registry has been moving services onto a newer platform, so confirm current access steps on the BC Registries site.
Quebec. The Registraire des entreprises du Québec (REQ) is the province’s enterprise register. Its interface is primarily in French.

Canada’s Business Registries is the entry point for finding provincial and territorial corporations, as the federal search page itself directs. Which fields are public, and what reports cost, varies by province.

What to read on any Canadian register

Legal name and number. Match them to the contract, and note former names.
Status. Active, dissolved, amalgamated or otherwise. Amalgamation means the entity you are dealing with may be the successor of a different one.
Registered office. Compare it with the address in the pitch.
Directors and officers, where the register shows them. Compare them with the people you have met.
Filing history, including annual returns, for regularity.

Public registers do not always show shareholders. Ask the company for its own registers and compare them with any beneficial ownership information it provides.

Liens: personal property security searches

Security given by a company over its movable assets is recorded in provincial personal property registries, not on the corporate register. Most provinces operate a registry under a Personal Property Security Act (PPSA), and British Columbia runs its own Personal Property Registry. Quebec records such rights in its Register of Personal and Movable Real Rights (RDPRM), under its civil law rather than a PPSA. Searches are typically made against the debtor’s name, and a search with no matches is not a guarantee that no security exists under a different name. Search the exact legal name and any former names, and in more than one province if the company operates in more than one. Fees and search types are set by each registry, so check them on the registry site.

A due-diligence reading

Corporate register for identity, status and people.
PPSA or RDPRM search for liens, compared with the debt the company says it has.
Court records for disputes; these sit with the courts, not the registry. See litigation and court records.
Bank and tax records, obtained only with the company’s consent, to test the numbers.

What the registers do not show

They do not show whether the company trades, whether its accounts are accurate or what it owes day to day. They record what was filed. Our Canada page explains how the registers fit with the other records in a Kubr report, and our KYB verification guide sets out the general method.

Sources

Primary registries and regulators referred to in this article:

Kubr accesses bank and tax records only with the company’s consent.

This article is general information, not legal, financial or investment advice.