Alberta Corporate Registry accepting nonprofit documents via email

Is it time for your society to start preparing and filing its required annual return? Or, if your organization is incorporated under the Companies Act, have you filed a Notice of Appointment of Agent for Service?*

Did you know that Alberta Corporate Registry is now allowing nonprofits to file documents like these by email?

The Corporate Registry front counter in Edmonton has been closed since August 2020. Since then, Corporate Registry has been accepting nonprofit documents via email. Previously, Alberta nonprofits were required to deliver all required documents in originally signed paper form (by post mail, courier, or personal delivery). While it is our understanding that documents received by email receive no priority over documents received any other way, submitting documents via email is certainly more convenient as organizations will not be required to take the tedious steps involved in sending in the mail (it’s nicknamed “snail mail” for a reason!)  

Always check with a Corporate Registry specialist first, but it is our understanding that the following services may be completed via email:

Societies Act

• Annual returns
• Notice of change of directors or shareholders/officers
• Notice of change in address
• Bylaw amendments
• Object amendments
• All incorporation documents
• All continuance documents
• All amalgamation documents
• Name change 
• Articles of dissolution  

Companies Act

• Annual returns
• Notice of appointment of Agent for Service*
• Notice of change of directors or shareholders/officers
• Notice of change in address
• Amendments to articles of association
• Amendments to memorandum of association
• All incorporation documents
• All amalgamation documents
• Name change
• Dissolution documents

Tips to ensure efficient service include:

• Ensure signatures on the above-listed documents resemble handwritten signatures (i.e., not typed.)
• Submit documents to corp.reg@gov.ab.ca
• If there are fees associated with submitting any documents (e.g., incorporation fees) a secure payment link may be requested via email.

We wanted to bring this to the attention of Alberta nonprofits if they were not already aware of this change since post mail or personal delivery has been the status quo for a long time. We hope are hopeful that Corporate Registry will be accepting documents via email permanently and will eventually adopt a completely electronic system for the nonprofit sector to make these processes more convenient and efficient.

* Agent for Service This is a new requirement that came into effect March 29, 2021. All Alberta non-profit companies in existence before March 29, 2021 will have until March 29, 2022 to appoint an agent for service.  Failure to appoint an agent for service by March 29, 2022 can result in the eventual dissolution of the company.

Kristina Roberts is a lawyer with experience in public interest matters and social entrepreneurship. At IntegralOrg, Kristina is responsible for developing a toolkit to assist organizations and entrepreneurs with structuring social enterprises, as well as overseeing and assisting with various other legal initiatives relevant to the charitable and nonprofit sector and the organizations that IntegralOrg works with.   

Yvonne Chenier, QC, is a lawyer and philanthropy consultant –Yvonne brings more than 35 years of experience helping those in the philanthropic, nonprofit, and social enterprise sectors as general legal counsel and as an advisor on planning, organizational, regulatory and governance matters.