Ontario businesses are permitted to conduct virtual meetings and to defer certain annual meetings in specified circumstances, as part of COVID-19 Response and Reforms to Modernize Ontario Act, 2020.

E-filings are also a welcome change. The Ministry of Government and Consumer Services will now be able to permanently accept copies of documents signed by electronic signature, providing greater flexibility to businesses moving forward.

“The reality is, we must balance the need to practice physical distancing with the need to conduct business each and every day,” said Lisa Thompson, minister of government and consumer services. “ These legislative changes will provide corporations with an opportunity to rethink how they operate in the new normal and be more efficient in the future.”

The government has consulted with the Business Law Modernization and Burden Reduction Council on these legislative amendments to address corporate and business law issues during the pandemic. The Council is a group of legal experts appointed by the Minister of Government and Consumer Services to advise on modernizing laws that govern Ontario businesses, some of which have not changed in over ten years.

The government also consulted with key businesses, condominium corporation sector stakeholders, and co-operative corporation sector stakeholders.

Legislative amendments to the Corporations Act, the Business Corporations Act, the Co-operative Corporations Act and the Condominium Act, 1998 related to virtual meetings and the deferral of annual meetings in some circumstances, are in force and retroactive to March 17, 2020, the day the Declaration of Emergency came into effect.