We take companies from outside Canada through incorporation, licensing, tax registration and the operational setup that follows. One team, from the first filing to your first Canadian customer.
Take one piece or the whole programme. Either way the scope is written down before we start, with dates against it.
We run the whole incorporation, federal or provincial, and tell you which one suits you. You sign what needs signing; we handle the filings, the accounts and the registry work.
Canadian regulation is split across federal and provincial jurisdictions, and the split is rarely where you expect. We work out which rules apply to you, then get you set up to meet them before they become urgent.
We build the entry plan from your numbers: who is already selling to your buyers here, what they charge, and which channel is worth your first hire.
Three stages, each one ending in something you can see: a plan, a filing, an operating entity.
A free session covering your structure, the regulatory requirements you will face, and where you would sit competitively. You get a clear picture of what entry involves before you commit to anything.
We write the entry plan: legal structure, what you have to comply with, and the go-to-market priorities in order. It comes with timelines, milestones and cost estimates, so you can budget from it.
We do the work alongside you: filing the incorporation, standing up your compliance framework, opening the accounts. We stay through your first operating milestones.
Companies entering Canada for the first time, and companies already here who want to do it properly the second time.
We are small on purpose. That shapes who you deal with, how much we take on, and what we will tell you.
No associate layer and no handover after the pitch. The person who scopes your entry is the person who runs it, and that is why we take on a few engagements at a time.
We are Canadian, based in Toronto, and we work across federal, provincial and municipal requirements. Quebec in particular runs on its own language, privacy and employment rules, and that catches people out.
Most consultancies hand off once the incorporation certificate arrives. That is the point at which the real work starts, and we stay engaged until you are operating.
You get warm introductions to the Canadian lawyers, accountants and bankers we already work with, at the point in the process where you need each one. No cold outreach on your part.
The questions that come up on almost every discovery call, answered here so you do not have to book one to get them.
Federal incorporation under the CBCA gives you name protection across Canada and the ability to operate in any province, but you still have to register extra-provincially in each province where you do business. Provincial incorporation is simpler and cheaper if you will only ever operate in one province. Most companies coming into Canada from abroad are better off federal, and we will say so on the first call if yours is an exception.
It depends on where you incorporate. Federal CBCA corporations generally require at least 25 per cent of directors to be Canadian residents, with an exception where there are fewer than four directors. Some provinces, including British Columbia and Ontario, have no residency requirement at all. This is often the single fact that decides where a foreign company incorporates, so it is worth settling early.
Incorporation itself takes days. Your real timeline is set by everything after it: a business number and CRA accounts, a corporate bank account, and any licence your sector requires. For an unregulated software company, four to eight weeks to fully operational is realistic. A financial services licence puts you in quarters.
Government filing fees are modest and published; the cost that matters is the work around them. We scope each engagement before it starts and give you a fixed figure with the plan, so you are not signing up to an open hourly arrangement. If a single service is all you need, you can buy just that.
You need a registered office address in the jurisdiction of incorporation. That is a legal address for service, and nobody has to work there. You do not need staff or a lease to incorporate. Banking and some licences are a separate question, and a few will want evidence of a real Canadian presence.
PIPEDA applies federally to commercial handling of personal information. If you have customers or staff in Quebec, Law 25 adds materially more: consent, transparency, breach reporting and a designated privacy officer. Alberta and British Columbia have their own provincial regimes. Getting this right at setup is far cheaper than retrofitting it once you hold customer data.