Over the course of the last few months, we have been working on initiatives aimed at increasing engagement between issuers and various stakeholders.

In October, we advocated that issuers should have access to a list of shareholders regardless of whether they have NOBO or OBO status. This position was submitted to the Ontario Ministry of Government and Consumer Services when reviewing the Ontario Business Corporations Act. We are now preparing to submit this position to Industry Canada on the Canada Business Corporations Act. We feel that it is essential that issuers know who their shareholders are in order to improve issuer-shareholder engagement and, ultimately, governance practices.

In December, we hosted our second Issues Committee event providing our members and the broader investor relations and governance community an opportunity to hear about hot issues for 2016 proxy season directly from ISS and Glass Lewis. If you have not had a chance to listen, please do so as this event was informative and free to members. You can click here to access the webcast.

During this session, we announced that we are working with Glass Lewis to increase engagement with Canadian issuers in an effort to improve the quality of the shareholder vote. In preparation for the 2016 proxy season, Glass Lewis is initiating a pilot of its Issuer Data Report (IDR) in Canada. The IDR includes information that will be used by Glass Lewis to inform its voting recommendations. We encourage Canadian issuers to participate in this pilot in order to improve the accuracy of information that is used by institutional shareholders when voting on company matters. CIRI members are being offered pre-launch, priority access to the report. To participate in this pilot, please contact Yvette Lokker.

This year has gone by in the blink of an eye. I cannot believe we are already heading into the holiday season! I know for many of you, it has been a challenging year. I hope that you can take the time over the holidays to spend with love ones and put any professional challenges aside.

Wishing you a safe and happy holiday!

Yvette