What's New?

Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) Now Available - Business Name Requests Online! Application for an Intermunicipal or Inter-Community Business Licence - Available through OneStop! BC Liquor Control and Licensing Branch Services Now Available Through OneStop!

Harmonized Sales Tax (HST)

The HST will apply to goods and services purchased on or after July 1, 2010. For more information on the rules and general guidelines related to the HST, click here. Detailed information on how the HST will benefit business can be found here.

Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA)

Effective April 27, 2009, BC Registry Services implemented changes to Name Requests Online and Corporate Online to support streamlining extraprovincial registrations of corporations, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships and cooperative associations from British Columbia to Alberta as outlined in the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement.

For more details regarding this initiative, go to our Important News page. There you will find links to important information regarding TILMA and a list of frequently asked questions.

Now Available - Business Name Requests Online!

For the past several years the number one comment the OneStop Business Registry and BC Registry Services has received is “make the reservation of a business name available online".
BC Registry Services has introduced a web-based Name Requests Online system that will, for the first time, provide an online business name reservation service for credit card and over-the-counter customers.  To submit a business name reservation through Name Requests Online, go to www.bcregistryservices.gov.bc.ca/nro/.

BC Registry Services will continue to examine names submitted through Name Requests Online, and the online service will have built-in edits and validations that will help:

• reduce the number of name rejections;
• reduce the number of telephone calls;
• reduce turnaround times;
• reduce user frustration;
• allow online submission of name approval requests for credit card customers;
• simplify the process;
• remove the bottleneck; and
• facilitate the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA).

Customers may continue to reserve a name through our other multi-channel service venues: phone, in person and mail.  Clients can visit any of the OneStop service delivery sites or contact a registry agent to submit their name requests. BC Registry Services staff will continue to advise clients over-the-telephone and on our web sites of the different options available to reserve a name.

Application for an Intermunicipal or Inter-Community Business Licence - Available through OneStop!

In addition to applying for a resident or non-resident business licence, you can now apply for an Intermunicipal or Inter-Community Business Licence [formerly referred to as a Mobile Business Licence (MBL)] with any participating OneStop local government partner.

An Intermunicipal or Inter-Community Business Licence (IBL/ICBL) allows a qualified mobile business to operate in all the participating municipalities in a region without obtaining additional non-resident business licences.

If you conduct business in more than one municipality and provide services by moving from client-to-client (such as a catering, landscaping or construction business) you may qualify for an IBL/ICBL. Cost of an IBL/ICBL and eligibility vary from region-to-region. Also some regions refer to this licence as an Intermunicipal Business Licence (IBL) and others refer to it as an Inter-Community Business Licence (ICBL).

Mobile businesses from outside the participating municipalities can apply for an IBL/ICBL in any of the participating municipalities in which they operate.

In the Okanagan-Similkameen a business wishing to obtain an ICBL must also apply for a resident or non-resident business licence as applicable, if they do not already have one.

Participating Municipalities Offering an Intermunicipal or Inter-Community Business Licence (IBL/ICBL):

BC Liquor Control and Licensing Branch Services
Now Available Through OneStop!

In July 2006, the BC Liquor Control and Licensing Branch partnered with the OneStop Business Registry to save owners of licensed establishments time and effort by enabling them to renew and view the status of their liquor licence online using the OneStop e-service.

Today, we are pleased to announce two additional online services as a result of this partnership!

Restaurant owners can now apply online for their food-primary liquor licence.  A food-primary licence for a restaurant is where the service of food, as opposed to liquor, is the primary focus of the business.  Whether opening a new restaurant or buying an existing one, application for the food-primary liquor licence in both situations can be done online through OneStop.

Existing food-primary liquor licensees who are planning to sell their business can also use OneStop to complete the agreement to transfer their establishment to the new owner.

The Liquor Control and Licensing Branch plans further ground-breaking initiatives in partnership with OneStop over the next several years.

For more information about applying for a food-primary (restaurant) licence, click here, and for more information on the transfer of an establishment to a new owner, please click here.

If you have any questions about these new services, call:

• In Greater Victoria, 250 387-1254
• Elsewhere in B.C., 1 866 209-2111