The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) has published for comment a series of proposed amendments and proposed changes to implement an access equals delivery model for non-investment fund reporting issuers (the Proposed Amendments). The comment period will last 90 days.
The Proposed Amendments will affect the provision of prospectuses, annual financial statements, interim financial reports, and related management’s discussion & analysis (MD&A) for non-investment fund reporting issuers.
Except in British Columbia, the Proposed Amendments generally contemplate that access to a prospectus or any amendment has been provided if the issuer has filed the document on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) and has issued and filed a news release informing investors that the document is publicly available on SEDAR. In British Columbia, the proposed amendments provide an exemption from the prospectus delivery requirements under securities legislation subject to the same conditions, which effectively achieves the same outcome as the proposed amendments in the other jurisdictions.
In all jurisdictions, the Proposed Amendments provide that the reporting issuer must issue and file a news release to inform investors that its financial statements and related MD&A are available on SEDAR, unless the reporting issuer complies with the current delivery requirements.
The Proposed Amendments do not remove an investor’s ability to request documents in paper or electronic form.
The Proposed Amendments can be found on the websites of the participating jurisdictions.
For more information, please call Barbara Hendrickson at BAX Securities Law (416) 601 -1004.
This publication is not intended to constitute legal advice. No one should act on it or refrain from acting on it without consulting with a lawyer. BAX does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy or currency or completeness of the publication. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior written permission of BAX Securities Law.
