Topic

Ontario

Ontario-specific rules on incorporation, employment standards, registration, and licensing.

Ontario business law runs through two front doors: the Ontario Business Registry for anything corporate (incorporation, annual returns, dissolution) and the Employment Standards Act, 2000 for anything involving employees. Ontario is also an HST province, which changes the sales-tax picture compared with Alberta even though registration itself stays federal. This page collects the Ontario side of every question the site covers.

What is distinctly Ontario

AreaThe Ontario rule of thumbWhere it is set
Incorporating$300 filed online through the Ontario Business Registry ($360 by paper)Business Corporations Act
Name searchOntario-biased NUANS report required for named companiesBusiness Corporations Act
Sales taxHST (the federal registration covers it; no separate Ontario step)Federal Excise Tax Act
Employment minimumsEmployment Standards Act, 2000; non-compete clauses signed on or after October 25, 2021 are largely voidESA, 2000
Extra-provincial entrantsCorporations from elsewhere register within 60 days of starting Ontario businessCorporations Information Act

Start with these answers

Mistakes specific to Ontario

  1. Confusing Ontario’s severance pay with termination notice. They are separate ESA entitlements with separate tests; “severance” in conversation usually mixes three legal concepts.
  2. Copying older non-compete clauses. Ontario voided most non-competes signed on or after October 25, 2021; a contract template predating that change may promise something the law won’t enforce.
  3. Missing the 60-day window when expanding into Ontario. An out-of-province corporation doing business in Ontario has a registration deadline, not an open invitation.

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.