On November 29, 2012, the Canadian Securities Administrators ("CSA") announced the adoption of regulatory changes and amendments (the "Notice") to National Instrument 54-101 – Communication with Beneficial Owners of Securities of a Reporting Issuer and National Instrument 51-102 – Continuous Disclosure Obligations. The amendments intend to improve the communications process between reporting issuers and shareholders. Specifically, the process by which reporting issuers send proxy-related materials to, and solicit proxies and voting instructions from, registered holders and beneficial owners of their securities.

The most significant features of the amendments are as follows:

  • Providing reporting issuers with a new notice-and-access mechanism to send proxy-related materials to registered holders and beneficial owners of securities;
  • Simplifying the process by which the beneficial owners are appointed as proxy holders in order to attend and vote at shareholder meetings; and
  • Requiring reporting issuers to provide enhanced disclosure regarding the beneficial owner voting process.

The amendments will take effect on February 11, 2013. Certain other provisions apply as of February 15, 2013, while the notice-and-access provisions can only be used in respect of meetings occurring on or after March 1, 2013.

For more information, please refer to the Notice, which can be found here.

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