Corporations Returns Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. C-43)

Marginal note:Returns on transfers of technology

• 6 (1) Every corporation to which this Part applies shall, for each reporting period of the corporation, file with the Chief Statistician of Canada, not later than ninety days following the end of the reporting period, a return in prescribed form specifying such information as the Governor in Council may prescribe relating to transactions involving transfers of technology in that reporting period from persons not resident in Canada to the corporation or, in the case of a holding corporation, to any of its subsidiaries.

• Marginal note:Limitation

  (2) For the purposes of this section, information relating to transactions involving transfers of technology shall be deemed not to include any scientific or technical description of any product or process.

Marginal note:Return to be certified

7 Each return and each statement comprised in a return required by this Part to be filed with the Chief Statistician of Canada shall, by the president or vice-president of the corporation filing the return and by one other officer thereof or another person duly authorized by the board of directors or other governing body of the corporation, be certified as having been examined by them and as being, to the best of their knowledge and belief, correct and complete.

Marginal note:Proof that this Part does not apply

• 8 (1) The Chief Statistician of Canada may, by notice in writing, request proof from any corporation that fails to file or fails to complete any part of a return required under this Part that it is not subject to the application of this Part in respect of the return or of the part of the return not completed.

• Marginal note:Proof on request or return instead

  (2) A corporation shall, within ten days after it receives a notice under subsection (1), furnish the Chief Statistician of Canada with the proof requested in the notice or file or complete, as the case may be, the return in respect of which the notice was given.

• Marginal note:Demand by registered letter to officer, etc., of corporation

  (3) Where a corporation has failed to file with the Chief Statistician of Canada a return for a reporting period as and when required by this Part, the Minister may, by demand made by registered letter to any officer, director or agent of the corporation in Canada, require that officer, director or agent to file with the Chief Statistician of Canada, within such reasonable time as is stipulated in the registered letter, the return required by this Part on behalf of the corporation.

Offences and Punishment

Marginal note:Failure to file return and non-compliance with subsection 8(2)

• 9 (1) Every corporation that fails

  • (a) to file with the Chief Statistician of Canada a return for a reporting period, or

  • (b) to comply with subsection 8(2),

  as and when required by this Part is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars for each day of the default.

• Marginal note:Officers, etc., of corporations

  (2) Where a corporation commits an offence under this section, any officer, director or agent of the corporation who directed, authorized, assented to, acquiesced in or participated in the commission of the offence is a party to and guilty of the offence and is liable on summary conviction to the fine provided by subsection (1) for the offence or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both, whether or not the corporation has been prosecuted or convicted.

Marginal note:Non-compliance with subsection 8(3) demand

10 Every person who fails to comply with any demand made to that person under subsection 8(3) is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to the punishment provided by subsection 9(2) for an offence under section 9, whether or not the corporation or any other person has been prosecuted or convicted therefor.

PART II[Repealed, 1998, c. 26, s. 65]

PART IIIGeneral

Marginal note:Information available for inspection

16 The information contained in any return filed by a corporation pursuant to section 4 shall be made available to the Minister of Industry and that information shall be made available by the Minister of Industry for inspection by any person, on application at any reasonable time and on payment of such fee, not exceeding one dollar in respect of any one corporation, as may be prescribed.

Marginal note:Definitions

17 In sections 18 to 20,

authorized person

authorized person means any person engaged or employed, or formerly engaged or employed, by or on behalf of Her Majesty for any purpose relating to the administration or enforcement of this Act; (personne autorisée)

official

official means any person employed in, or occupying a position of responsibility in, the service of Her Majesty and includes any person formerly so employed or formerly occupying such a position. (fonctionnaire)

Marginal note:Privileged information; prohibition against communication

• 18 (1) Except as provided in section 19, all information contained in a return filed by a corporation pursuant to section 5 or 6 is privileged and no official or authorized person shall knowingly

  • (a) communicate or allow to be communicated to any person any such information (in this section and section 19 referred to as “privileged information”) obtained under this Act; or

  • (b) allow any person to inspect or have access to any statement or other writing containing any privileged information obtained under this Act.

• Marginal note:Information privileged in connection with legal proceedings

  (2) Notwithstanding any other Act or law, no official or authorized person shall be required, in connection with any legal proceedings,

  • (a) to give evidence relating to any privileged information obtained under this Act; or

  • (b) to produce any statement or other writing containing any privileged information obtained under this Act.

Marginal note:Exception respecting proceedings

• 19 (1) Subsections 18(1) and (2) do not apply in respect of proceedings relating to the administration or enforcement of this Act.

• Marginal note:Exception respecting employees of Statistics Canada

  (2) An official who is an officer or other person employed in the execution of any duty under the Statistics Act or any regulation thereunder may

  • (a) communicate or allow to be communicated to any other such official any privileged information obtained under this Act; and

  • (b) allow any other such official to inspect or have access to any statement or other writing containing any privileged information obtained under this Act.

• (3) and (4) [Repealed, R.S., 1985, c. 2 (4th Supp.), s. 5]

• Marginal note:Restriction, notwithstanding exceptions, on use of information

  (5) Notwithstanding anything in this section, in no case shall any privileged information obtained under this Act be communicated to any person for the purpose of facilitating the institution or furtherance of any proceedings brought or taken or that may be brought or taken under any law of Canada other than this Act.

Marginal note:Contravention of section 18 or 19

20 Every person who, being an official or authorized person, contravenes any provision of section 18 or 19 is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both.

Marginal note:Certificate as evidence

21 In any prosecution for an offence under Part I, a certificate purporting to be signed by the Chief Statistician of Canada or any person authorized by the Chief Statistician of Canada in writing in that behalf that a return was not filed with the Chief Statistician of Canada by any corporation or person as and when required by that Part is admissible in evidence and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary is proof of the statements contained in it.

Marginal note:Annual report

• 22 (1) The Minister shall, as soon as possible after the end of each year, cause to be prepared a report containing a statistical summary and analysis of information obtained under this Act, contained in returns filed by corporations for reporting periods coinciding with or ending in that year, and shall immediately cause the report to be laid before Parliament on its completion, if Parliament is then sitting or, if Parliament is not then sitting, on any of the first fifteen days next thereafter that either House of Parliament is sitting.

• Marginal note:Disclosures not to be made in report

  (2) The statistical summary and analysis contained in a report described in subsection (1) shall be so presented or shown as not to disclose particulars of, or identify or permit identification of the source of, information contained in any statement comprised in a return filed by a corporation pursuant to section 5 or 6.

Marginal note:Regulations

• 23 (1) The Governor in Council may make regulations

  • (a) respecting the manner in which any return required by Part I to be filed by a corporation shall be filed by the corporation;

  • (b) specifying, for the purpose of avoiding duplication of reporting, corporations or classes of corporations that are exempted from the application of the whole or any part of Part I where information that would otherwise be required to be provided under Part I in respect of those corporations or classes of corporations can be obtained by the Chief Statistician of Canada from returns filed pursuant to another Act of Parliament;

  • (c) prescribing the forms to be used and the information to be included thereon by corporations filing returns pursuant to section 4, 5 or 6;

  • (d) specifying what information included in a return filed pursuant to section 5 is to be presented on the basis of geographical distribution or class of business;

  • (e) excepting, for the purposes of subsection 19(3), any part of any department or agency of the Government of Canada that has regulatory or investigative powers;

  • (f) prescribing anything that is by this Act to be prescribed; and

  • (g) generally, for carrying into effect the purposes and provisions of this Act.

• Marginal note:Proposed regulations to be published

  (2) Subject to subsection (3), a copy of each regulation that the Governor in Council proposes to make under paragraph (1)(c) or (d) shall be published in the Canada Gazette and no such regulation may be made by the Governor in Council before the expiration of ninety days after the date of publication thereof.

• Marginal note:Single publication required

  (3) No proposed regulation need be published more than once under subsection (2) whether or not it is altered or amended after such publication as a result of representations made by interested persons.