Industry committee  I'm the policy director at Corporations Canada. Prior to 1975 shares were issued under the Canada Corporations Act. They were a different form in that shares were issued according to par or par bought value shares. Generally, again, the act was silent with respect to bearer form.

Industry committee  An option is not a share and has no rights until it's converted.

Industry committee  It's possible. We try to make the information available: what we are looking at; what kind of search you need. We give you access to the tools; you can do it yourself. Will you get a name that's approved or not? The question then is whether the advice of an external source, whether a law firm, search house, or anybody else, is worth their fee, in that if you submit a name that's not accepted, it becomes rejected, and you get to go through the whole process again.

Industry committee  You can incorporate federally with a number, which is fast, or you can get a “name” name. We've never come out with a good explanation for that one. The requirement, if you're going to use a “name” name, is that you have it approved to make sure it's not confusing yours with anybody else's name.

Industry committee  Usually within Canada, if you incorporate in one province and want to operate in another, you go to the other province's government and register to conduct business in that province. Once you're registered, and as long as you meet the requirements of registration, then you can conduct business in both provinces.

Industry committee  They are, however, a very large part of our economy. So one large publicly traded company can have a lot more effect than one mom and pop shop. But if you put all the mom and pop shops together, they're going to have a major effect on our economy and our hiring rates, and everything else.

Industry committee  The anecdotal evidence we have is that there are 1.5 million corporations in this country, and the TSX has slightly over 4,000. Yes, there are more than 4,000, because there's over-the-counter trading and so on, but essentially there are only 4,000 on the TSX and 1.5 million corporations in total.

Industry committee  The interaction between bankruptcy and the CBCA is that if you are insolvent you may not use the liquidation dissolution provisions of the CBCA to liquidate; you have to go through either the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act or the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. The CBCA only deals with solvent companies trying to liquidate.

Industry committee  We've never participated in one. The basic framework behind CBCA says it's self-enforcing. That means we put a framework in place. A lot of the rules the corporations deal with themselves. We're not enforcing them; it's really to facilitate them to communicate. For meetings, you can put everybody in a room; you can put half the people in the room and half the people on a conference call, or on some kind of video conferencing over the computer; you can put everybody into conferencing over the computer.

Industry committee  No. The concept in the late 1990s of collection of proxies by telephone came in. The technology suddenly hit about 1997, 1998, and CBCA companies weren't allowed to do it because the act itself prevented it. One of the things we changed was the rules. You're looking at the principle.

Industry committee  It is 1-866-333-5556.

Industry committee  I think the only thing to add is there are a fair number of technical issues. Usually, as soon as the bill gets out there, you'll get a phone call from a lawyer saying what does this mean, or you have an extra word there, or should this comma be moved, or the English and French aren't matching.

Industry committee  Clause 284 is the record-keeping requirement for the director appointed under the act. In particular, it says that documents have to be kept for six years, with a short list of exceptions. This amendment lengthens the list of exceptions of what has to be kept for more than six years.

Industry committee  It's the same issue as the last housekeeping one. Paragraph 294(f) has a list of all the exemptions. We have to add the new exemption that was created in clause 161. (Amendment agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings] (Clause 294 as amended agreed to) (Clauses 295 to 373 inclusive agreed to)

Industry committee  We've been very careful. This wording is as objective as you can get. It is purely a provincial issue, so whatever the provincial requirements are for a financial review, that is the qualification. There's no reference to any particular association and there's no reference to any favouring of a particular association.