B.C.’s Ministry of Finance has published a draft regulation under the Business Corporations Act for public consultation.

This consultation forms part of the multi-pronged BCA implementation project. The BCA, which was passed by the legislature in the fall of 2002 but has yet to be brought into force, will replace the current Company Act as the legislation dealing with the organization and governance of companies.

The draft regulation includes matters such as fees (for the inspection of corporate records), time frames (for the giving of notice of meetings and the retention of company records), threshold shareholding requirements (for shareholders’ proposals and insider trading rules), applicable standards (for the preparation of financial statements) and Corporate Registry procedures (including establishing which documents are to be filed electronically and which can be future-dated).

Highlights of the proposed regulation include: a private company may reduce the minimum number of days’ notice required for calling a meeting from 21 days to 10 days, and, companies will be able to communicate and store corporate records electronically.

The deadline for receiving comments is Sept. 12.