Pharmacy Ownership Requirements: Trusts & Trustees Mar. 28, 2019 New Pharmacy Ownership Requirements

Pharmacy Ownership Requirements: Trusts & Trustees 

Since the introduction of the new ownership requirements under the Pharmacy Operations and Drug Scheduling Act (PODSA), the College has been collecting information about Direct Owners and Indirect Owners (directors, officers and shareholders) as part of the annual pharmacy license renewal process. 

Up until this point, information about trustees has not been collected, as trustees were not initially considered to be indirect owners and, as such, were not subject to the ownership requirements under PODSA. 

Trusts & Trustees

A trust is a relationship where one or more persons, known as trustees, hold property in trust for the benefit of certain persons, known as beneficiaries. In the case of corporate shares, the shares of the corporation would be issued to the trustee and the trustee would hold the shares subject to the terms of the trust. 

If a trust holds shares in a direct owner or in a parent corporation of a subsidiary corporation in respect of a pharmacy that is incorporated in BC and not publicly traded, the trustee of the trust is the shareholder and is subject to the requirements for “indirect owners” under PODSA. 

While a “Trust” is not a separate legal entity upon further review, the College has concluded that trustees do in fact fit within the definition of an indirect owner. As such, trustees will now be subject to the requirements for indirect owners under PODSA.

Beginning with pharmacy licence renewals for pharmacies with a June 30, 2019 expiry date, all pharmacies identified as having one or more trusts or trustees holding shares of the direct owner or its parent company will be required to provide information for each trustee that is not already listed as an indirect owner with the College.  The Authorized Representative(s) of these pharmacies will be notified by email approximately 30 days before receiving access to renew their pharmacy licence on eServices.

Follow the steps below to find and submit information about your pharmacy’s trustees. 

Submit an Updated, Certified True Copy of the Central Securities Register

Under the BC Business Corporation Act, the shareholders of a corporation are the persons listed as registered owners in the Central Securities Register (CSR).  When the shares are held in trust, the CSR should list the registered owner (individual or corporation) of those shares as a trustee of the trust.  The trust itself cannot be listed as the shareholder.

Refer to the CSR you submitted as part of your last pharmacy licence renewal application.  If the names of the trustees are not listed, you are required to provide an updated, certified true copy of your CSR that includes the names of each trustee.

If you are unsure how to reflect trustees in your CSR, you may wish to retain a lawyer to assist with preparing information to be submitted to the College. 

Submit Trustee Information

You will be required to provide information for each individual trustee through the Ownership Portal in eServices using the same process that you did for other indirect owners. 
 
If the trustee is an individual, you will have to submit the person’s name and email address, and list this person as a shareholder on eServices. 

If the trustee is a corporation, you will have to list the corporation as a shareholder on eServices. If the corporation is a BC incorporated, non-publicly traded corporation, you will have to submit the following:

• The corporation name and incorporation number, 
• The name and email address of each director, officer and shareholder of the corporation,
• The most current copy of the BC Company Summary issued within the last year, and
• A certified true copy of its CSR.  

If a shareholder of the trustee corporation is a non-publicly traded corporation (i.e. “parent company”), you will have to submit the same information for the parent company.

Complete Proof of Eligibility

Once the College has validated the information submitted in step 2, all identified trustees will be required to complete a Proof of Eligibility (POE) consisting of an attestation and Criminal Record History (if they have not submitted one to the College within the last 5 years).  

As with all other pharmacy licence renewal requirements, their POE must be completed 30 days before the pharmacy licence expires.

Note: Trustees under the age of 19 are exempt from submitting Proof of Eligibility. 

NEW PHARMACY OWNERSHIP REQUIREMENTS READLINKS SERIES

Watch for additional New Pharmacy Ownership articles in the months ahead on ReadLinks. These articles feature important new requirements for pharmacy licensure and renewals to help pharmacies prepare to meet the requirements.