Database of Public Authorities

On January 1, 1994, Order 1870-93 came into force, calling for the creation and updating of the central database of bodies and legal persons established in the public interest, or database of public authorities, following the adoption of the Act respecting the legal publicity of sole proprietorships, partnerships and legal persons and its implementing regulation.

The identification of public authorities is the basis for the creation and maintenance of the database of public authorities, which includes clear entities such as municipalities, CLSCs and so on.

The entities in the database are divided into five main categories, i.e. international, federal, provincial and municipal bodies, and social services.

The government departments, bodies, enterprises, groups and legal persons established in the public interest whose information is collected and disclosed in the administration of the central database of bodies and legal persons established in the public interest (the database of public authorities) are:

• the House of Commons and the National Assembly; 
• Government of Canada and Québec government departments and the bodies that act as their mandataries; 
• bodies whose staff is appointed pursuant to the Public Service Act (R.S.C., c. F-3.1.1); 
• bodies covered by the Public Service Employment Act ( R.S.C. 1985, c. P-33); 
• bodies in which a majority of members or a majority of members of the board of directors is appointed by the Government of Canada or the Québec government; 
• bodies whose staff is appointed pursuant to a regulation approved by the Government of Canada or the Québec government; 
• bodies all of whose voting shares are part of the federal or Québec public domain; 
• municipalities constituted under a general or special statute; 
• bodies in which a majority of members or a majority of members of the board of directors is appointed by one or more municipalities; 
• the mandatary bodies of municipalities within the meaning of the Act respecting the Pension Plan of Elected Municipal Officers (R.S.Q., c. R-9.3); 
• supramunicipal bodies within the meaning of the Act respecting the Pension Plan of Elected Municipal Officers; 
• bodies in which a majority of members or a majority of members of the board of directors is appointed by a supramunicipal body within the meaning of the Act respecting the Pension Plan of Elected Municipal Officers; 
• the Cree Regional Authority and the Kativik Regional Government; 
• regional health and social services boards; 
• public institutions within the meaning of para. 3  and 4 of s. 98 of the Act respecting health services and social services (R.S.Q., c. S-4.2); 
• public institutions within the meaning of paragraph a of s. 10 of the Act respecting health services and social services for Cree and Inuit Native persons (R.S.Q., c. S-5); 
• school boards and regional school boards governed by the Education Act (R.S.Q., c. I-13.3) as well as the Conseil scolaire de l'île de Montréal; 
• the Cree School Board, the Kativik School Board and the Naskapi Education Committee governed by the Education Act for Cree, Inuit and Naskapi Native Persons (R.S.Q., c. I-14); 
• general and vocational colleges; 
• the Université du Québec, its constituent universities, research institutes and superior schools within the meaning of the Act respecting the Université du Québec (R.S.Q., c. U-1); 
• professional corporations within the meaning of the Professional Code (R.S.Q., c. C-26); 
• the governments of other States and their diplomatic, consular or commercial representations; 
• international government organizations.

Since bodies established in the public interest are not subject to registration in the register of sole proprietorships, partnerships and legal persons, the enterprise registrar must obtain the information to update the database of public authorities.

"Public authority" is a broad concept that encompasses numerous entities and the sources of information are just as varied. Some are complete and allow for efficient updating, while others are only cursory and do not cover the entire database of public authorities. Moreover, not all of these sources contain the information required by Order 3685-77, which specifies the information that the database of public authorities must contain.