The effective date for all private companies governed by the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia) (BCA) to maintain a "transparency register" has been postponed until October 1, 2020. This requirement was previously to come into effect on May 1, 2020.
Bennett Jones, alongside other British Columbia law firms, reached out to the Ministry of Finance to request an extension to the original coming into force date of these amendments due to the challenges imposed on our clients as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The date was changed to October 1, 2020, pursuant to an Order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council of British Columbia. We will use the additional time granted by the provincial government to continue to work with our British Columbia clients to prepare and maintain their transparency registers in order to comply with the new requirements.
In addition to the extension of the in force date, the Order in Council referenced above introduced various changes to the legislative amendments which we had previously described in detail on March 18, 2020, in New Corporate Requirement - Transparency Registers for B.C. Private Companies. This post included a discussion of the content described below and we will be providing an update in the coming days to ensure that it is reflective of the revised legislation:
Should you have questions, please contact a member of the Bennett Jones Financial Services group. In addition, please visit our COVID-19 Resource Centre for other COVID-19-related materials.