If the business is in Ontario and the name does not need protecting across the country, Ontario is usually the simpler choice: no director-residency rule, one set of annual filings, immediate issuance of the certificate. Federal is the better choice when the name matters nationally, the company expects to operate in several provinces, or an investor or program requires it, and it is available so long as at least a quarter of the directors are resident Canadians. Either is inside the fee, and the decision is made with the lawyer on the onboarding call.

Within five business days of a complete intake. The articles are filed within one to two business days of the engagement letter; the organizational documents, share issuance, registers and minute book follow and are delivered by day five. If the corporation has to exist by a fixed date, say so at intake and the filing is done first.

The corporation’s permanent record: the articles and certificate, the by-laws, every resolution the directors and shareholders have passed, the registers of directors, officers and shareholders, the securities register that records every share issued or transferred, and the register of individuals with significant control that Ontario and federal law both require. It is the only proof of who owns the company, and the first thing a lender, an investor, an acquirer or a grant program asks to see. Launch builds it from day one and keeps it for the first year; reconstructing missing years later costs more than setting it up once.

One class of common shares is standard and usually enough for a single founder. Non-voting common shares let a spouse, family member or holding company hold equity without a vote, and allow dividends on one class and not another where your accountant says the rules permit. Preferred shares carry a fixed dividend with redemption and retraction rights — what a first investor asks for and what a freeze is built on. Special shares suit a holding company or family trust holding from the start. Classes are cheaper to put in the articles now than to add later; your accountant’s plan decides which you need.

Two-class, CAD $595, adds one class to the common shares — usually non-voting common — for a family member or holding company without votes. Multi-class, CAD $795, adds non-voting common plus preferred or special classes, the structure accountants ask for when a holding company, freeze or investor is in view. The call settles which.

Launch issues the founders’ shares outright, and the call asks whether they should instead be earned over time: a cliff, a monthly or quarterly schedule, and a right for the company to buy back the unearned shares at cost if a founder leaves early. With one founder the answer is usually no. With two or more it is usually yes, and it decides what follows the incorporation: the Startup Kit, so the shares are issued under the founders’ agreement from the first day, and the Equity Structuring Kit for the vesting itself. Neither is inside the Launch fee; both are drafted to fit the shares Launch issues.

Only if the corporation will have a name rather than a number. A named Ontario corporation needs an Ontario-biased NUANS report dated within ninety days of filing; the firm orders it, and the search-house charge is passed through at cost. A numbered company — 1234567 Ontario Inc. — needs no search and can register a business name later. A federal application runs the name search as part of the filing. If you plan to trade under a brand that differs from the corporate name, the delivery session covers the business-name registration that requires.

Launch is a one-time package: the incorporation, the organization and the minute book for the first year, for one fixed fee. After that the corporation owes an annual return and annual resolutions, which the firm offers as a separate clerk-delivered maintenance service, and companies that want a lawyer on call use Ongoing Counsel Support. Nothing renews automatically.

Those are the next two kits, and Launch is designed to hand off to them cleanly. The founders’ shareholders’ agreement, founder IP assignment and founder share documentation are the Startup Kit, and most companies with two or more founders take it with Launch at CAD $5,950 together, CAD $595 less than the two apart because the founder shares are issued once, under the agreement. Vesting, restricted shares and the repurchase right if a founder leaves are the Equity Structuring Kit. Launch itself issues founder shares outright in a standard structure.

Tax and accounting advice stay with your accountant, and Launch is built to work from their plan: if they have recommended a holding company, a particular share structure or a fiscal year end, the articles and resolutions are drafted to match, and the firm coordinates with them directly where that helps. What the firm does not do is choose the tax plan, make elections or value anything. A structure designed around a tax plan — a freeze, a trust, a non-resident shareholder — is scoped as advisory work rather than squeezed into the fee.

Often, yes. A company incorporated online without by-laws, resolutions, share issuance or a minute book can usually be organized on the same fee, provided the articles do not need amending. Where records are missing for a company that has been operating — shares never issued, directors never appointed, filings overdue — the work is a corporate clean-up rather than an incorporation, and it is scoped after intake, sometimes as a fixed fee and sometimes in phases. Either way the intake is the right place to start.

The structural decisions — jurisdiction, share structure, who holds what — are made with Khaled El Fauri, a member of the Bar of Ontario, on the onboarding call, and he reviews the package before it is delivered. The documents are prepared by the firm’s team to the firm’s standard forms. That is what keeps a lawyer-led incorporation at a fixed fee.

HST on the firm’s fee; the government filing fees — Ontario $300, federal $200, or $300 for four-hour express, at the time of writing — and the name-search charge for a named corporation, all passed through at cost. Shareholders beyond three, and the second or third share class, are the add-ons with the prices shown. Everything outside standard scope — negotiated share rights, non-resident structuring, a clean-up of an older company — is quoted separately before any work is done. Fees & Engagement explains how the firm scopes and bills.

You have a corporation, a signed minute book and a list of what it owes and when. The delivery session names the next step if there is one: the Startup Kit where there is more than one founder, the Build a Team Kit before the first hire, the Funding Kit when money is coming in. The founders and startups page sets the sequence out in full, and the answer is sometimes “nothing yet”.