Topic

Alberta

Alberta-specific rules on incorporation, registry agents, employment standards, and licensing.

Alberta business law has a distinctive shape: the province runs almost everything about a corporation’s life through private registry agents rather than a government counter, has no provincial sales tax, and sets employment minimums in its own Employment Standards Code that differ from Ontario’s and from the federal Canada Labour Code. This page collects the Alberta side of every question the site covers.

What is distinctly Alberta

AreaThe Alberta rule of thumbWhere it is set
Incorporating$291.75 government fee, filed only through a registry agent that adds its own service feeBusiness Corporations Act; Registry Agent Product Catalogue
Sales taxNo provincial sales tax; only the federal GST appliesFederal Excise Tax Act
Termination notice1 to 8 weeks by length of service; none at 90 days or lessEmployment Standards Code
Annual returnFiled through a registry agent; missing it can lead to dissolution by the RegistrarBusiness Corporations Act
Business NumberAssigned automatically at incorporation through the Common Business Number programCRA partnership with Alberta Corporate Registry

Start with these answers

Mistakes specific to Alberta

  1. Shopping only the government fee. Every Alberta registry filing carries an agent service fee that is not regulated or capped; the spread between agents is the real cost variable.
  2. Reading Ontario answers as Alberta answers. Notice periods, filing routes, and fees all differ; every article on this site names its jurisdiction so you don’t have to guess.
  3. Assuming statutory notice is the whole severance story. The Employment Standards Code sets minimums; common-law notice can be substantially more.

Official starting points

Guide last updated August 8, 2026.

All answers on this topic

Is severance pay mandatory?

The three-jurisdiction breakdown of when severance is legally owed, the payroll test almost nobody checks, and where it doesn't exist by law.

Are unpaid internships legal?

The narrow exemptions that make an unpaid internship lawful federally, in Ontario, and Alberta, and what an employer owes when none apply.

What is a partnership?

What actually makes a partnership in Ontario and Alberta, how partners are taxed federally, and why each partner can bind the others.