Changing a corporation’s official name requires a resolution, articles of amendment and a filing with the register: the corporation remains the same legal person. Labo Legal handles it for $664.75 all in, search of the new name included.
The short answer: changing the official name of a Québec business corporation is done by articles of amendment filed with the enterprise registrar, after authorization by resolutions and a search of the new name. The corporation stays the same: same contracts, same history, same business number. Only the name changes.
Why change the official name?
The most frequent case is the numbered corporation that has proved itself: the numbered designation let you start quickly, and the moment has come to carry a name worthy of the brand. Then come repositionings, the business that has widened its activities and whose original name has become too narrow, the merging of identities after a combination, or simply a name chosen in haste that never really fit.
How does the change work?
Four stages. The search first: the new name must be available and compliant, with the Québec rules on business names as much as with the Charter of the French language; it is the same search exercise as for a constitution. Authorization next: a change of name amends the articles, which requires properly drawn resolutions of the corporation’s bodies. Then the amendment: the lawyer prepares the articles of amendment and files them with the registrar together with the government fees, and the corporation receives its certificate of amendment. A final stage, often neglected: updating the outside world, the bank, standard contracts, insurers, suppliers, stationery and online presence.
What does not change?
The essentials, in fact. The business number stays the same, the corporation keeps its legal personality, its contracts remain valid and its credit history follows it. Your clients sign with the same business, under a new name. That is the whole difference from creating a new corporation, which would start from zero and require everything to be assigned.
What does it cost and how long does it take?
Our change of name package is $399 plus taxes, registrar fees of $206 included, with a name search, articles of amendment prepared by a lawyer and the certificate of amendment. The authorizing resolutions are added through our resolution drafting service. Once the file is complete, filing is processed within 24 to 48 business hours. One practical tip: if the new name is settled but the launch is waiting, a name reservation holds it for you for 90 days.
Changing name is not changing regime. To move from Québec to federal, see continuance.
The name changes, the obligations stay
This is the logical counterpart of the corporation remaining the same legal person, and it is worth stating plainly. Its debts follow it. Judgments rendered against it follow it. Suretyships given to its creditors stay in force. Judicial proceedings under way continue, and you will simply have to note the new name in the file.
That answers a question we are asked with a certain embarrassment: no, changing name does not let you start afresh against a creditor or a damaged reputation. A search of the register shows the history of names, the business number stays identical, and anyone checking seriously will make the connection in seconds. Changing name is a positioning tool, not an erasure.
Conversely, the good news is symmetrical: your contracts signed under the old name remain perfectly valid. They do not need to be re-signed. Telling your counterparties is good practice and avoids rejected invoices; it is not a requirement of validity.
The list of what has to be updated
This is where most changes of name get complicated, not at the filing but in the weeks that follow. Plan to go methodically through the financial institution and every account, the tax registrations and the employer accounts, the permits, licences and accreditations your sector requires, the insurance policies, the commercial leases and the equipment leases, your standard contracts and terms of sale, the stationery, the signage and the promotional material, the domain names and email addresses, the profiles on professional platforms and in directories.
Two items are regularly forgotten. First the trademarks registered in the corporation’s name, whose ownership still shows the old name. Then the registered security in your favour, where your name appears as creditor. Neither invalidates your rights, but a prolonged mismatch always ends up creating friction at the worst moment.
Changing the name or declaring a business name
The financial comparison is quickly made, and often misread. The business name costs markedly less, is declared quickly and is withdrawn just as easily. A change of name requires articles of amendment, higher government fees and the updating described above.
But cost is not the right criterion. The real question is how much of a mismatch you are prepared to live with. As long as the legal name remains usable in your contracts and with your bank without causing confusion, the business name does the job for a fraction of the price. As soon as that mismatch becomes a source of repeated explanations, it is already costing you more than the change itself. Our article on choosing a business name helps make sure the new name will not raise the same problems as the old one.
A change of name is one amendment to the articles among others: see when and how to amend the articles.
What the corporate file must contain afterward
A change of name done well leaves a complete record. The resolutions authorizing it, the articles of amendment, the certificate issued by the registrar, then the share certificates reissued or annotated to reflect the new name. These documents join the minute book, where they form the continuity between the corporation’s two identities.
That documentary continuity is not decorative: it is what will let you show a buyer or a bank, in five or ten years, that the business that signed a contract under the old name is the one that exists today. An amendment filed without the book keeping a record of it creates exactly the kind of gap due diligence brings to light. If the new name is settled but the launch is waiting, a name reservation holds it for you in the meantime.
Frequently asked questions
Does changing the name lose the business number or the corporation’s contracts?
No. The corporation remains exactly the same legal person: the business number, the contracts, the accounts and the history are kept. Only the legal name changes, recorded by a certificate of amendment.
What authorizations are needed to change a corporation’s name?
The change amends the articles and must be authorized by resolutions of the corporation’s bodies, adopted in the form the law and your constituting documents provide. We prepare those resolutions with the file.
What does changing a corporate name cost in Québec?
At Labo Legal, $399 plus taxes, including $206 in registrar fees, the search of the new name, the articles of amendment prepared by a lawyer and the certificate of amendment. The authorizing resolutions are added.
The current government amounts are set out in the fee for a certificate of amendment.