The Investment Canada Act

Legal/Regulatory: trade laws, regulations for foreign companies, copyright and intellectual property protections, digital privacy legislation

The regulations for foreign companies intending to participate in the Canadian market are outlined in the Investment Canada Act. The purpose of the act are to review significant investments in Canada by non-Canadians in matter which encourages investment, economic growth as well as new employment opportunities in Canada (Government of Canada – Investment Canada Act).

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-21.8/page-1.html

The Investment Canada Act contains two review processes. These two processes are subject to changing thresholds and procedures, and consider multiple factors. Non-Canadian investors must file one of the two forms; the first being (a) a notification of the intended investment or (b) an ‘Application for Review’. The ‘Application for Review’ is only necessary when the freeing investment is of significant amounts (between 5 million and 1.5 billion CAD enterprise value). Thus, Cultured Cities would be able to simply submit their notification of intended investment, as they would not be within the range to warrant a review under the Investment Canada Act. In this notification Cultured Cities need to outline their intended net benefit to Canada.

“Under the Act, the burden of proof is on foreign investors to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Minister that proposed investments are likely to be of net benefit to Canada.“ (Government of Canada – Investment Canada Act)

https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ica-lic.nsf/eng/lk00064.html

Under the ‘Constitution Act, 1867’ Canada’s intellectual property rights are gained either by statute or common law and are governed by both federal and provincial jurisdiction, although most legislation occurs at the federal level. Cultured Cities may need to register certain aspects of their company (designs, trademarks, copyright and trade secrets), which is a fairly straightforward process.

The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) states that any organisation that collects, uses or discloses personal information must obtain consent beforehand. This would be simply implemented into the framework of Cultured Cities by adding the required consent forms into the terms of service.

https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/privacy-laws-in-canada/the-personal-information-protection-and-electronic-documents-act-pipeda/pipeda_brief/

Market structure, brief industry overview, and behavioural trends in industry