A technical issue has been encountered in the OBR in respect of articles of amalgamation filed currently but with a request for a future effective date of January 1, 2026. This technical issue affects both OBCA and ONCA amalgamations. This technical issue exists whether you file documents directly in the OBR through the partner portal or if you use a service provider.
The effective date will be preserved, but the certificate and articles of amalgamation (the output documents) will likely be delayed. This technical issue ONLY AFFECTS AMALGAMATIONS with a FUTURE EFFECTIVE DATE. The Ministry has advised that this technical issue does not affect other articles filed with a future requested date of January 1, 2026.
The Ministry has provided the following information on what to expect, and how to address back-to-back amalgamations with the same effective date:
Future Dated Amalgamations Dated for January 1, 2026
Future Dated Amalgamations - What to Expect
- There is a technical issue impacting only future dated amalgamations with effective dates of January 1, 2026. It does not impact any other type of future dated filings.
- Ministry staff will be processing the filings, and there may be delays in the application being completed. The Ministry is targeting to complete all impacted filings by January 9th, 2026.
- On the effective date (January 1, 2026) you will receive an email containing a Company Key and the Ontario Corporation Number (OCN) of the new amalgamated corporation, but you will not receive the Certificate and Articles of Amalgamation.
- When the application is processed, you will receive a second email containing the output documents, a new Company Key and the same OCN. This new Company Key must be used to gain authority.
Submitting a Back-to-Back Amalgamation on January 1st, 2026
What to do if filing back-to-back amalgamations with the same effective date:
- Submit the first future dated amalgamation.
- On the effective date (January 1, 2026), you will receive an initial email with a Company Key and the Ontario Corporation Number (OCN) of the new amalgamated corporation.
- For the second amalgamation, fill out the following PDF forms depending on the filing: Business Corporations Act (BCA) and Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (NFPCA).
- Use the OCN of the new entity from the initial email to complete Section 3 of the PDF forms.
- Due to this technical issue, send an email with the signed and fillable PDF forms along with any supporting documents to exceptionfilings@ontario.ca who will process the amalgamation.
- Add “Back-to-Back Amalgamation” in the subject line of the email, and in the body of the email, indicate this is the second amalgamation (e.g. this amalgamation follows the amalgamation of Corp A and Corp B effective on January 1, 2026).
You can access a PDF of the Ministry's notice here.