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Interpretation Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 238

The term “corporation” is defined in s. 29 of the Interpretation Act:

  • “corporation” means an incorporated association, company, society, municipality or other incorporated body, where and however incorporated, and includes a corporation sole other than Her Majesty or the Lieutenant Governor.

Where the term “corporation” is used in the Land Title Act, this definition applies unless another definition applies expressly.

Business Corporations Act, S.B.C. 2002, c. 57

The registrar’s requirements for the verification of a corporation’s existence vary depending upon the type of corporation. The following definitions under s. 1 of the Business Corporations Act are relevant to land title practice:

  • “company” means
  • (a) a corporation, recognized as a company under this Act or a former Companies Act, that has not, since its most recent recognition or restoration as a company, ceased to be a company, or
  • (b) a pre-existing trust company or a pre-existing insurance company;
  • “corporation” means a company, a body corporate, a body politic and corporate, an incorporated association or a society, however and wherever incorporated, but does not include a municipality or a corporation sole;
  • “extraprovincial company” means, as the case may be,
  • (a) a foreign entity registered under section 377 as an extraprovincial company or under section 379 as an amalgamated extraprovincial company, or
  • (b) a foreign entity registered as an extraprovincial company or as an amalgamated extra­provincial company under regulations made in accordance with Division 4 of Part 11,
  • and includes a pre-existing extraprovincial company;
  • “federal corporation” means a corporation to which both of the following apply:
  • (a) the most recent of the following was effected by or under an Act of Canada:
    • (i) the incorporation of the corporation;
    • (ii) a continuation of the corporation or any other transfer by a similar process into the federal jurisdiction;
    • (iii) an amalgamation or similar process from which the corporation resulted;
  • (b) the corporation has not, since that incorporation, continuation or amalgamation or similar process, been discontinued by or under an Act of Canada;
  • “foreign corporation” means a corporation that
  • (a) is not a company,
  • (b) has issued shares,
  • (c) is not required under the Cooperative Association Act to be registered under that Act, and
  • (d) was
    • (i) incorporated otherwise than by or under an Act,
    • (ii) continued under section 308 or otherwise transferred by a similar process into a jurisdiction other than British Columbia, or
    • (iii) the result of an amalgamation under Division 4 of Part 9 or a similar process, or of an amalgamation or similar process in a jurisdiction other than British Columbia, and includes an extraprovincial corporation within the meaning of the Financial Institutions Act;
  • “foreign corporation’s jurisdiction” means, in respect of a foreign corporation,
  • (a) the jurisdiction in which the corporation was incorporated,
  • (b) if the corporation resulted from an amalgamation or similar process, the jurisdiction in which the most recent amalgamation or similar process occurred, or
  • (c) if the corporation has, since the later of its incorporation and any amalgamation or similar process from which the corporation resulted, been continued or otherwise transferred by a process similar to continuation, the jurisdiction into which the corporation was most recently continued or transferred;
  • “foreign entity” means a foreign corporation or a limited liability company;
  • “foreign entity’s jurisdiction” means,
  • (a) in the case of a foreign corporation, the foreign corporation’s jurisdiction, or
  • (b) in the case of a limited liability company, the jurisdiction in which the limited liability company is organized;
  • “limited liability company” means a business entity that
  • (a) was organized in a jurisdiction other than British Columbia,
  • (b) is recognized as a legal entity in the jurisdiction in which it was organized,
  • (c) is not a corporation, and
  • (d) is not a partnership, including, without limitation, a limited partnership or a limited liability partnership.
  • “special Act corporation” means a corporation, incorporated by an Act, that
  • (a) has not been recognized as a company, and
  • (b) has not been converted into a society under section 96(2) of the Societies Act.