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Name Granting Compendium: Not-for-profit [1]

VII. Other Related Policies

1. Not-for-profit Organizations (Part II Companies)
   • Non-Distinctive Names

Corporate names which are refused as too general or only descriptive under Regulations l9(a) and (b) of the CBCA are not for these reasons alone prohibited for not-for-profit companies.

Because of the nature of the names approved for Part II Companies, there may be a greater likelihood of receiving names which could connote government sponsorship or control. Therefore, more attention should be paid to Regulation 17 when granting names for not-for-profit companies.

for example: "Canadian Association of Postmasters"

• Chamber of Commerce

The term "Chamber of Commerce" is available for use in the name of a not-for-profit corporation with suitable objects.

• Legal Elements

The only legal elements which are permitted for not-for-profit companies are:

"Incorporated" or "Inc."
"Corporation" or "Corp."

• Not-for-profit Confusion

In the past, where the name of a proposed not-for-profit corporation consisted of a geographical term plus a descriptive term, e.g. "Canada Ultralight Aircraft Association" or "Canada Dance Foundation", and an existing not-for-profit corporation had the same descriptive words with a different geographical qualification, e.g. "Calgary Ultralight Aircraft Association" and "Toronto Dance Foundation", we required the consent of the existing corporation. This should continue to be the case. However, applicants should be advised that a slight modification of their proposal would probably make it available, e.g. "Canada Ultralight Aircraft Society" or "Canada Dance Funding Society".

2. Regulation 24 of the Act states that a corporate name is not prohibited only because it contains alphabetic or numeric characters, initials, punctuation marks or any combination thereof.
3. Bilingual Names
   • While there is no requirement under the CBCA or CCA that the French or English version
     1. be an exact translation, or
     2. be grammatically correct

we encourage both of these qualities.

4. The primary concern in granting an alternate linguistic version of a corporate name is to ensure that the translated version does not mislead the public into thinking that two separate corporations are involved.

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[1] http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/cd-dgc.nsf/en/cs00026e.html