IR Leader
December 10, 2019

Focused on Providing Value to Members

For a small team, there has been a lot of activity at CIRI throughout 2019, focused on what our members value most from their membership: resources; professional development; networking opportunities; and advocacy. 

We continue to develop the resources you need to practice IR at the highest level. These resources keep you informed of the changes, best practices and emerging trends in IR and our most popular publication, 2019 Investor Relations Compensation and Responsibilities Survey, is available for purchase now!

I encourage you to renew your membership; to leverage our expanding pool of resources to inform your IR program. Your membership expires on December 31, 2019 and your invoice is now available online. To pay your invoice, please visit CIRI.org and Sign In using your email address as your username. Select your name from the top right corner to access your profile. Click the Renew Now button on the left and you will be taken to your open 2020 invoice where you can complete the payment. Your payment is complete once you receive an email from CIRI with your order confirmation. Should you require assistance with this, please contact Lora Turner.

If you have renewed your membership, thank you. If you haven't, please renew today!

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The Value of CIRI Membership - Advocacy

CIRI members identify four top reasons they value their membership. One of the top reasons is staying abreast of regulatory changes through CIRI's advocacy initiatives.

On September 5, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published Instrument 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations and Changes to Certain Policies Related to the Business Acquisition Report Requirements. These proposals relate to a reporting issuer that is not an investment fund that is required to file a business acquisition report (BAR) after completing a significant acquisition.

On December 4, CIRI made a submission to the CSA supporting the proposed amendments to incorporate a two-trigger test regime and increase the significance test threshold from 20% to 30%. While these are all positive steps to reducing the regulatory burden on issuers, CIRI questioned the value of BARs and whether the threshold could be increased further. 

To view the complete submission, click here.

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Top Stories

Five Ways That ESG Creates Value

Your business, like every business, is deeply intertwined with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) concerns. It makes sense, therefore, that a strong ESG proposition can create value - and in this article, we provide a framework for understanding the five key ways it can do so.

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OSC Publishes Ambitious Plan to Reduce Capital Markets Regulatory Burden

The OSC has published an ambitious plan to reform Ontario's securities regulatory regime. The potential reforms, announced on November 19 in the report "Reducing Regulatory Burden in Ontario’s Capital Markets", could affect nearly every market participant operating in Ontario's capital markets - companies, investment funds, dealers and other registered firms, derivatives participants and others.

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Proxies Offering Incomplete Human Capital Picture, Study Finds

Issuers starting to tackle investor demand for information but often lack detail, according to research.

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How Do Investors Use ESG?

Last week, the SEC's Investor Advisory Committee held a meeting focused in part on the use of environmental, social and governance information in the capital allocation process - how do investors use ESG information in making investment decisions? The panelists - an academic and several representatives of asset managers - all viewed ESG data as important to decision-making, particularly in relation to potential financial impact, even for investment portfolios that were not dedicated to sustainability.

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CSA Notes Inadequate Disclosure of Financial Interest in Cannabis M&A

On November 12, 2019, staff of the securities regulatory authorities in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia (the "Regulators") issued Canadian Securities Administrators Multilateral Staff Notice 51-359 Corporate Governance Related Disclosure Expectations for Reporting Issuers in the Cannabis Industry (the "Notice") to provide supplementary guidance related to disclosure of financial interests in the context of mergers, acquisitions or other significant corporate transactions.

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Buy Side Eyes Mandated ESG Disclosures

As environmental, social, and corporate governance concerns continue to grow, institutional investors and asset managers have found obtaining the necessary financially material disclosures from companies a growing challenge and have started to push towards mandated disclosures.

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