Are you looking for information about the owners or the directors and officers of an Ontario company? Do you need an official address of the head office of a company and the name of the President?
In Ontario the government offers what is called a Corporate Profile Report. It is also called an Ontario company search or an Ontario corporate search.
Be sure not to mistake this report to be with respect to a sole proprietorship or a partnership registered in Ontario . In order to obtained information about those types of businesses you must do what is called an Ontario Business Names Search.
The Corporate Profile Report will tell you the address of the registered office of an Ontario company, the names and addresses for service of all directors, the names, titles and address for service of all officers, and all filings done on behalf of the company such as articles of amendment, notices of change of addresses or directors.
All provinces and territories in Canada offer these kinds of searches but every jurisdiction calls them different things and provides slightly different information.
In Ontario you cannot obtain the name of an owner of an Ontario company. It is considered private information. However, determining who the directors are of the company in many cases leads you to the owners because frequently the owner will be a director. As well, if you know who the President is and it is a small Ontario company, then you have most likely determined at least one owner if not the sole owner. For larger Ontario companies and any public Ontario company this might not be the case.
The Corporate Profile Report will tell you if there are any business names registered against the company but it will not give you those names. A "yes" or "no" is inserted into the box on the Corporate Profile Report and if "yes" is inserted then you can do a further Business Names Report for that company to determine what business names is carrie on business under.
You can also find out all of the previous names of the company if there have been any changes in the company's name.
In my experience when an individual is looking for information for a search they wish to perform frequently they will order the wrong product. Do not hesitate to contact the owner of the website when you are ready to purchase such a product and let them know what you are wanting. They can then direct you to the proper search. Every province calls these searches different names and it is better to know in advance so you are not wasting your money on the wrong search. Further if the shopping cart is efficient it will provide a comment box where you can clarify why you ordered the product. You should take advantage of this box to let the website owner know what you are trying to determine and then this will highlight to them whether you have in fact ordered the wrong product and they can then help direct you to the correct product.
You will need to know the proper name of the company. If you do not know this you can as well write the contact person and tell them you are not sure and they can do a quick check for you to see what names are on file, prior to your spending your money.
Holly Crosgrey is a paralegal with 20 years Canadian corporate law experience. She is the owner of Resources for Canadian Business Owners at www.canadianbusinessresources.ca. She is also the owner of www.hollyscents.ca.
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
or organization.
tweet this!