The requirements for professional medical corporations in British Columbia are provided in Part 4 of the Health Professions Act (HPA), and Part 6 of the Bylaws of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia under the HPA.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC is not in a position to provide financial or legal advice. The College recommends that registrants seek and obtain professional advice from lawyers and accountants prior to setting up a professional medical corporation.

The corporate name requirements are provided in section 6-4 of the College Bylaws. Please note that the College requires necessary punctuation for abbreviations in corporation names.

Pursuant to section 6-3(1)(c) of the College Bylaws, it is required that a lawyer, licensed and practising anywhere in Canada, represent a registrant during the process of applying for a medical corporation permit.

A PDF copy of the Application for a Medical Corporation Permit is available here.

For more information, click here to learn more about applying for a medical corporation permit.

The College recommends registrants review the application in detail with their lawyer.

The College's application for a medical corporation permit must be completed in the format provided, with original signatures (blue-ink pens are recommended). Any amendments or alterations to the application will not be accepted. Once an application is submitted, the College will review and process the application if it is acceptable to the College. An incomplete, illegible and/or incorrect application may not be processed and the College may request a new application be resubmitted. Please note that an application dated more than 60 days of College receipt is considered stale-dated. In response to the Application for a Medical Corporation Permit, the College provides a written consent and an early copy of the written consent is forwarded to the responsible lawyer via facsimile.

For delivery confirmation, the College highly recommends using postal/courier services that require a signature when delivered. This allows applicants to track the package and be provided with delivery confirmation. Applicants should ensure that an application is forwarded to the College’s current mailing address, which can be found on the College website.

Please note that processing of completed applications may take several weeks. The processing time represents the time it takes to approve or decline an application. Processing time is subject to change and therefore gives you a general idea of the turnaround time for written consent.

The College understands that the name approval request is valid for a period of 56 calendar days once the corporate name is approved by BC Registry Services. Therefore, the College recommends that the name approval request is made shortly before an application is submitted to the College to ensure that there is a reasonable amount of time for the College to respond to an application. Unfortunately, the College is unable to fast-track Applications, and rush fees are unavailable.

Prior to the issuance of the medical corporation permit, the voting shareholder(s)/registrant(s) in the corporation may still practise medicine as an individual and receive earnings under his/her own name. Therefore, a registrant is not yet entitled to commence practice through the corporation if a medical corporation permit has not yet been issued to the corporation.

For sole registrant corporations, the fee of C$485 must accompany the application (full amount in one payment). This amount includes the application processing fee of $350 per registrant, and the annual permit fee of $135 for the current fiscal year. Please note that the above-noted fees are non-taxable. Payments for all start-up fees for professional corporations are expected to be in the form of cheque or money order payable to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC. For detailed fee information, please refer to Schedule A of the College Bylaws.

Registrants are responsible for sending a copy of the permit to Health Insurance BC, Provider Programs (telephone at 604 456-6950 or toll free 1-866 456-6950). Health Insurance BC may issue a new payee/ payment number for the corporation, and the College requests that registrants  provide that number to the College. The College recommends that registrants provide copies of the certificate of incorporation and the permit for the corporation to the membership department of the Canadian Medical Protective Association.

The annual permit fee is not pro-rated. The College’s fees are based on its fiscal year of March 1 to last day of the following February.

For 2017 – there  is currently a C$50 fee to obtain a duplicate copy of a medical corporation permit. For detailed and up-to-date fee information, please refer to Schedule A of the College Bylaws. Requests should be submitted via email to pmcapp@cpsbc.ca. 

The receipt for the annual corporation permit renewal is available online under the primary shareholder’s account. This requires the primary shareholder logging in to the College’s website using his/her CPSID and password. The receipt is found in the Financial Tab under My Account. For receipts from 2014 or previous years, a duplicate receipt fee of C$25 plus GST applies. For detailed and up-to-date fee information, please refer to Schedule A of the College Bylaws. Requests should be submitted via email to pmcapp@cpsbc.ca.

After the corporation has been incorporated in BC and upon receipt of acceptable post-incorporation documents and information from legal counsel (which documents and information are intended to complete the application), the permit is issued and the corporation may commence business.

In addition to the documents and information required under section 6-3(1)(f)-(h) of the College Bylaws, a true copy of the executed articles of the corporation, and the executed articles of the holding company (if any) must be provided.

A suggested clause for BC medical corporations that is acceptable to the College is as follows:

"Notwithstanding any other provisions of these Articles, the company is subject to and shall at all times comply with the requirements of Part 4 of the Health Professions Act, RSBC 1996, c.183 (as amended from time to time), and Part 6 of the Bylaws of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia under the Health Professions Act (as amended from time to time)."

A suggested clause for a BC holding company that is acceptable to the College is as follows:

“Notwithstanding any other provisions in these Articles, the Company, while it holds shares in a company which holds a permit under s.43(1) of the Health Professions Act, is subject to Part 4 of the Health Professions Act, RSBC 1996,  c.183 (as amended from time to time), and Part 6 of the Bylaws of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia under the Health Professions Act (as amended from time to time).”

Any other clauses in the articles that are included for ease of reference in relation to the requirements of the HPA and Bylaws fall within legal counsel’s expertise. 

The medical corporation permit, once issued, will authorize the corporation to operate as a health profession corporation effective no sooner than the date of issuance.