Inter-corporate ownership

There are more than 1 million incorporated businesses in Canada. Currently, the Inter-corporate ownership database tracks the ownership of 86,978 of the largest of these corporations resident in Canada. Most of these large corporations reside in Ontario (42.3%), Quebec (24.0%), British Columbia (13.1%) and Alberta (10.4%). The remaining 10.3% are found in the other provinces and territories.

There are differences across provinces. Ontario has the largest proportion of foreign investors, with one in five of its large corporations being foreign-controlled; in Quebec, however, only 1 in 10 are foreign-controlled. In Ontario, the United States is the dominant foreign investor, controlling more than half of the foreign corporations resident there. In British Columbia, however, the highest proportion of corporations are from Pacific Rim countries and other foreign countries.

The Inter-corporate ownership database provides up-to-date information reflecting recent corporate mergers and takeovers and other substantial changes for the largest Canadian corporations. Ultimate corporate control is determined through a careful study of holdings by corporations, the effects of options, insider holdings, convertible shares and interlocking directorships. This information is based on non-confidential returns filed by Canadian corporations under the Corporations Returns Act. This is a unique database of "who owns whom" in Canada. It contains legal corporate name(s), the country of control, the Standard Industrial Classification code, the province of the head office, the enterprise parent name and the percentage of voting rights owned. Users can search, sort, evaluate and download data by company name, company types, industry, province, country of control, and more. It also allows the user to cross-tabulate a search by selecting a number of companies in a particular industry and then cross-tabulating by the province of residence or country of control, etc.

The third quarter 2002 issue of Inter-corporate ownership on CD-ROM (61-517-XCB, $350/$995) is now available. The Inter-corporate ownership 2000 directory (61-517-XPB, $350) is also available. This publication was discontinued after 2000.

For general information or to order data, contact Jeannine D'Angelo (613-951-2604; jeannine.dangelo@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Stewart Taylor (613-951-6564; taylste@statcan.gc.ca), Industrial Organization and Finance Division.