What Canada’s corporate registers reveal.
Original empirical research on corporate compliance, registry accuracy, beneficial ownership and the corporate lifecycle in Canada — computed from the registers’ own published data, with the method published in full so the work can be checked.
Published research
Each report takes one question about the corporate record and answers it with counted evidence.
Active Does Not Mean Compliant
Annual filing default as a measure of statutory non-conformity in Canada's federal corporate registry
What does “Active” on the federal register actually prove?
Nobody had measured it publicly in fifteen years. Corporations Canada last published a compliance figure for 2011–12. This report computes it directly from the registry’s own bulk data.
Access the research Download the bulletin (PDF) ↓- 27.98% — more than one in four active federal corporations stand in evidenced breach of at least one core annual obligation of the Act
- Two components: one in five (20.02%) has stopped filing its annual return; one in eight declaring corporations admits a late annual meeting on the return it just signed
- Only 26.5% of corporations actually in default carry any public warning on the register
- 4 to 1 — struck off for non-filing versus voluntary wind-up: 76,632 against 17,228 annualized
“Active is a legal status, not a compliance signal.”Corporations Canada bulk data · August 2026
Immatriculée Does Not Mean Compliant
Annual declaration default as a measure of statutory non-conformity in Quebec's enterprise register
Is the problem confined to empty shell companies?
The natural objection to any registry compliance statistic is that defaulters are dormant shells. Quebec’s register carries a declared employee count, which allows the objection to be tested directly.
Access the research Download the bulletin (PDF) ↓- 18.20% of registered Quebec corporations are in default — 109,909 of 603,880 past deadline
- 34,110 have never filed a declaration at all
- Small employers default most. Corporations declaring 1–5 employees default at 20.59%, against 18.08% for those declaring none
- 696,902 struck off ex officio against 694,339 currently registered — 86.7% of removals involuntary
Registre des entreprises · extract 1 August 2026
Countdown to Dissolution
Administrative strike-off as the dominant pathway out of corporate existence — federal and Quebec evidence
How do Canadian corporations actually cease to exist?
Insolvency is where people look for corporate death. It is the minority pathway. This report measures the majority one — administrative strike-off for failure to file — and finds it runs on a clock.
Access the research Download the bulletin (PDF) ↓- 68.2% of the 723,987 federal dissolutions ever recorded were for non-compliance, not by the corporation’s own decision
- 49.1% of those struck for non-compliance — 242,415 corporations — never filed a single annual return
- A clock, not a judgment. Across 15,406 dissolutions observed in 2026, none came earlier than 31 months after the last return’s anniversary; the certificate follows the notice by a median of 150 days
- No safeguards. Strike-off carries no trustee, no court and no creditor notice — unlike bankruptcy or a voluntary wind-up
“Dissolution is a compliance event, not a business-failure event.”Corporations Canada & Registre des entreprises · August 2026
Banking While Dissolved
Administrative dissolution, contradicting registers, and the reliability of corporate existence for Canadian financial institutions’ KYC
Can two Canadian registers disagree about whether a company exists?
A bank verifies that a corporate client exists at onboarding and revisits the question years later, if at all. This report matches Canada’s two largest corporate registers record by record and counts how often they contradict each other in the meantime — in both directions.
Access the research Download the bulletin (PDF) ↓- 6,822 corporations dissolved federally for non-compliance remain registered in Quebec — 47.9% of them still filing Quebec declarations
- 5,897 corporations Active in Ottawa are struck off in Quebec — nearly half current on their federal filings
- One in seventeen. Together 5.83% of the corporations both registers describe are in contradiction; every match validated on name, regime and constitution date, and every figure a floor
- Nothing tells the bank. Neither register informs the other, the Canada Revenue Agency or the institution; a corporation can default, be struck off, revive (median 74 days) and cure between two refreshes
“Corporate existence must be a monitored attribute, not a verified one.”Corporations Canada & Registre des entreprises · August 2026
Forthcoming reports
The rest of the series, in preparation. Subscribers receive each report on publication, with the findings, the figures and the limitations together.
On method. Every figure in this programme is computed from official open data — Corporations Canada’s Federal Corporations datasets and monthly transaction extracts, and the Registre des entreprises open dataset via Données Québec — or from preregistered sampling of the public record where bulk data does not reach. Each report states its extract date, its confidence grading and its limitations, including what it deliberately does not claim.
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