Insurance Company Switches from Ontario to Quebec Laws
An Act to authorize Gore Mutual Insurance Company to apply to be continued as a body corporate under the laws of the Province of Quebec
Summary
- Authorizes Gore Mutual Insurance Company to apply to continue as a corporation under Quebec law, despite restrictions in the federal Insurance Companies Act.
- Once continued under Quebec law, the company will cease to be governed by the federal Insurance Companies Act.
- Repeals historic special federal Acts related to the company upon continuance.
- Responds to a policyholder-approved request and to the absence of a general mechanism allowing federally incorporated insurers to continue under provincial law.
Builder Assessment
Overall, the bill modestly aligns with Build Canada’s tenets by removing a regulatory barrier and enabling corporate mobility and choice. Its impact is narrow and largely administrative, with no material effects on exports, taxes, or nationwide productivity.
- Strengths: expands economic freedom; reduces a specific bureaucratic hurdle; cleans up outdated statutes.
- Limits: one-off authorization; negligible macro impact; does not address productivity, exports, or tax reform.
- To strengthen alignment: replace this private bill with a general, economy-wide framework allowing continuance between federal and provincial regimes (and vice versa) for all financial institutions; add reciprocal passporting to reduce duplicative oversight; include clear policyholder-protection and prudential standards to maintain stability while enabling mobility.
Principles Analysis
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Canada should aim to be the world's most prosperous country.
A firm-specific corporate law change has negligible macroeconomic impact on national wealth.
✓
Promote economic freedom, ambition, and breaking from bureaucratic inertia (reduce red tape).
Removes a statutory barrier and enables corporate choice of jurisdiction, advancing regulatory competition and reducing red tape.
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Drive national productivity and global competitiveness, including removing interprovincial trade barriers and improving labour mobility (one country, one market).
Any productivity gains are indirect and limited to one insurer; national effects are unclear.
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Grow exports of Canadian products and resources, and move up the value chain by processing resources domestically rather than exporting them raw.
No direct impact on exports or trade.
✓
Encourage investment, innovation, and resource development.
Allows the firm to adopt a regulatory regime better suited to its strategy, which can support investment and innovation at the firm level.
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Deliver better public services at lower cost (government efficiency).
Does not address public service delivery; repeal of obsolete Acts is a minor administrative cleanup.
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Reform taxes to incentivize work, risk-taking, and innovation.
Contains no tax provisions.
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Focus on large-scale prosperity, not incrementalism.
A one-off, company-specific measure with limited scope; it neither advances nor impedes large-scale prosperity.
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Email [email protected]
PartySenate
StatusRoyal assent received
Last updatedJun 3, 2025
TopicsEconomics, Trade and Commerce
Parliament45