I sold shares of a public company, is the proceeds the selling price or the gain I made?

According to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), there are three variables that calculate your capital gain/loss. They are as follows (along with the definitions):

Proceeds of Disposition: The amount you receive from disposing of a capital property.

Adjusted Cost Base: The purchase price of a property, plus your expenses to acquire it.

Outlays and Expenses: Any amount spent before or during disposal of a capital property.

The equation goes as: Proceeds of Disposition - (Adjusted Cost Base + Outlays and Expenses)

From your example, the proceeds is the total cash amount you have received for selling. So it would be the selling price when the transaction to sell the capital property occurred.

For more information, check out: Canada Revenue Agency - Calculating Capital Gain

Thank you for choosing TurboTax.