Province making permanent changes to electronic business submissions

The province will soon be permanently allowing official documents and information from businesses to be submitted electronically. 

Starting October 31, the Government of Manitoba's Companies Office and Financial Institutions Regulation Branch will be permanently changing some of its regulations. 

"Manitoba Finance is permanently implementing measures introduced as part of the COVID-19 response to reduce red tape and allow more work to be handled electronically," they say in a statement.

The Companies Office's new permanent changes include:

The now permanent changes to the regulation will enable:
•    no longer requiring signatures when accepting notices of change of directors and registered office, annual returns and all articles of amendment, amalgamation, continuance, reorganization, arrangement, dissolution and revival submitted electronically under the Corporations Act and the Cooperatives Act;
•    electronic signatures for all supporting information and documents required under the Corporations Act, the Cooperatives Act, and the Religious Societies Lands Act under the regulation; and
•    electronic submissions for declarations filed under the Business Names Registration Act due to a dissolution, change of membership, proprietors or partners, declarations for limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships, declarations for a person ceasing carrying on business and notices of a change in a business or firm name.

The province says since mid-March they have been allowing some documents and information to be exchanged electronically. They say will be continuing the practice of doing so by working via their website, general phone line, email, mail and by fax.

They say safeguards in place will allow the Companies Office and the Financial Institutions Regulations Branch to have the final say on electronic submissions.

If either party has a concern about the authenticity of a signature they have the ability to reject the submission.