The application and renewal process for certificates of status for the professional corporations (PCs) of doctors and dentists was rather labyrinthine. The College of Physicians and Surgeons recently announced that the process for doctors has been simplified. In an email it sent to subscribers to its corporate mailing list, the College summarized the changes as follows.
1. Requirement for ‘certified’ copies of certificates is removed. Uncertified copies will suffice.
2. ‘Statutory’ declaration requirement is replaced with requirement for a simple declaration signed by a director.
3. ‘Certificate of Status’ requirement is replaced by requirement for a ‘Corporation Profile Report.’
4. Names of non-voting, non-member shareholders are no longer required. In practical terms, this means names of family members who own non-voting shares are no longer required.
In addition, the definition of ‘family member’ in relation to shareholders has been amended in a manner that broadens the definition:
“child”, in relation to a shareholder of a health profession corporation, includes a person whom the shareholder has demonstrated a settled intention to treat as a child of his or her family, except under an arrangement where the child is placed for valuable consideration in a foster home by a person having lawful custody;
“parent”, in relation to a shareholder of a health profession corporation, includes a person who has demonstrated a settled intention to treat the shareholder as a child of his or her family, except under an arrangement where the child is placed for valuable consideration in a foster home by a person having lawful custody.
We’re investigating whether the requirements for dentists have been simplified as well.
Frankly, these changes are long overdue. The Law Society had a much simpler process and did not require its members to swear declarations. Lawyers could be trusted to tell the truth without swearing an affidavit but not doctors and dentists?
Doctors, who are busy people after all, will likely still want to hire a lawyer to incorporate a PC, which is not straightforward even under the simplified process outlined above. On the other hand, but for the requirement for a certificate of status and a sworn declaration each year, doctors could likely file their annual renewals without having to engage a lawyer and then take time out of their busy schedules to go to the lawyer’s office to swear the renewal declaration. Now doctors can complete the process themselves or, if they don’t like filling out forms, get a lawyer to do it who can email a completed package to the doctor who can simply print it, sign where needed and then mail it to the College.
