In light of the disruption to day-to-day operations due to global responses surrounding COVID-19 in recent weeks, the members of the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) have issued various releases designed to recognize the difficulties in proceeding with regulatory business as usual. Each member of the CSA has issued orders giving temporary blanket relief from the deadlines for filing of specified regulatory documents, some of which are conditional on certain actions being taken by the applicable filer. All exemption orders take effect on March 23, 2020 and will remain in effect for 120 days. We refer to the instruments made by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) in this bulletin; issuers, registrants and funds resident in a particular province/territory other than Ontario, should reference the specific exemptions granted by the applicable regulator, which are available on the applicable regulator's website.

The CSA's March 23 press release announcing the relief is available here.

In addition, Ontario and Québec provincial governments announced mandatory closures of all non-essential workplaces effective March 24 at 11:59 p.m. (Ontario) and March 25 at 00:01 (Québec). All workplaces engaged in capital markets and financial services activities are considered to provide essential services and can remain open. This includes the regulators and registrants in these provinces.

Please view these links for more information:

For registrants in all jurisdictions of Canada

The filing deadlines for specified documents set out in sections 12.12 – 12.14 of National Instrument 31-103 falling on or before June 1, 2020 have been extended by 45-days after the applicable delivery/filing deadline. This includes annual and interim financial statement filings and working capital reports (and NAV error reports, if any). There are no conditions to relying on the relief.

The instrument evidencing the relief granted in Ontario (OSC Instrument 31-510) is available here.

Similar extensions under the Derivatives Act in Québec have been granted to registrants under that regime. View the Décision n° 2020-PDG-0022 here.

For registrants in Ontario – additional information

The filing deadlines for specified filings to be made by registrants with the OSC under OSC Rule 13-502 Fees, OSC Rule 13-503 Commodity Futures Act (Fees) and under certain other specified Ontario instruments have been extended by 45 days after the applicable filing deadline. This relief, in Ontario, is provided in OSC Instrument 31-510 as above.

In addition, the OSC has announced the following operational changes:

  • No on-site compliance reviews will take place
  • The Risk Assessment Questionnaire which was to be sent out for responses in April 2020 will be postponed
  • Normal-course registration and compliance activities will continue, but the OSC will be flexible with respect to deadlines for information
  • All in-person outreach sessions are cancelled (Registrant Outreach, OSC LaunchPad and OSC in the Community). This includes scheduled webinars.
  • In-person consultations will proceed via conference calls
  • No in-person hearings will be held at least until April 30, 2020.

Although announcements have not been made in other jurisdictions, we expect a similar approach to be taken by other members of the CSA.

For investment funds

  • The deadlines for filing and delivering specified regulatory documents for investment funds have been extended by 45 days. This includes specified documents and notices required to be sent to securityholders of investment funds under National Instrument 81-106. The deadline for the audited annual financial statements and MRFPs (and related documents) for funds with a December 31 financial year (being March 30) is now extended to Thursday, May 14, 2020.
  • For any investment fund distributing securities under a prospectus with a lapse date that falls during the period of March 23 to June 1, 2020, the lapse date may be extended by 45 days, at the option of the fund.
  • There are terms and conditions for taking advantage of the relief. Each fund relying on the relief must "as soon as reasonably practicable and in advance of" the applicable deadline:
    • Notify the Director of the Investment Funds and Structured Products Branch of the OSC (funds based in Québec, must notify the AMF) that the fund is relying on the relief, and specify each applicable requirement for which it is relying on the relief. If the Director is so notified, there is no need to notify all of the other regulators where the fund is a reporting issuer; and
    • Post on its website a statement describing that it is relying on the relief.

The instrument evidencing the relief in Ontario (OSC Instrument 81-503) is available here.

  • The CSA have also provided guidance on the measures that issuers may wish to take to hold virtual annual general meetings. Some of this guidance may be useful for investment funds who wish to hold virtual securityholder meetings for any reason.

For reporting issuers (Non-investment funds)

  • All persons or companies required to make certain specified filings or deliveries pursuant to National Instrument 51-102, National Instrument 51-101 and National Instrument 43-101 during the period from March 23, 2020 to June 1, 2020 will have an additional 45-days to make such filings or deliveries.
  • Examples of the specified filings include annual financial statements and interim financial reports, management's discussion & analysis, annual information forms and executive compensation disclosure, statement of reserves data and technical reports. The delivery of annual financial statements, management's discussion & analysis and the sending of annual request forms to shareholders are also subject to the extension provided certain conditions are met.
    • In order to rely on the temporary exemption, persons or companies must as soon as reasonably practicable:
      • Issue and file a news release on SEDAR prior to its filing deadline disclosing:
      • each requirement for which it is relying on the exemption
      • that its management and other insiders are subject to an insider trading black-out policy
      • the estimated filing date of the required disclosure or date of delivery of the required document and
      • either an update of any material business developments since the date of the last financial report, or confirmation that there have been no material business developments since that date; and
    • Issue and file a news release on SEDAR within 30 days of the first day of the extension period. A subsequent news release must be issued no later than 30 days following the first news release if the person or company has not yet filed each document for which it is relying on the temporary exemption, providing an update of any material business developments since the date of the last news release, or confirmation that there have been no material business developments since that date.
  • Persons or companies relying on the 45-day exemption may not file a preliminary prospectus or a final prospectus for a securities offering until it has filed all documents for which it is relying on the exemption.
  • For exemptions relating to the sending of an annual request form, the annual request form must be sent before the record date of the issuer's next annual meeting of securityholders.
  • For exemptions relating to the delivery of annual financial statements or management's discussion & analysis, those documents must be delivered before, or in conjunction with, the delivery of the management information circular for the issuer's next annual meeting of securityholders.
  • Certain other continuous disclosure filings including change of auditor reporting packages, notice of change in year end, business acquisition reports and notices of change in corporate structure will also have an additional 45 days from the applicable filing deadline. This is if that the person or company issues and files a news release, prior to its filing deadline, disclosing each requirement for which it is relying on the exemption.
  • Filings related to certain exempt distributions due pursuant to National Instrument 45-106 and Multilateral Instrument 45-108 will have an additional 45 days from the deadline if a news release is issued and filed prior to the filing deadline disclosing the requirement for which the person or company is relying on the exemption.
  • Designated rating agencies filing Form 25-101F1 will have 45 extra days to make any filings provided certain disclosures are made.
  • The lapse date for a final short form base shelf prospectus pursuant to National Instrument 44-102 may also be extended for an additional 45 days. Provided that the person or company issues and files a news release disclosing the specific requirements for which it is relying on the exemption, and it is not otherwise relying on the exemption relating to annual and interim filings discussed above.

The instrument evidencing the relief granted in Ontario (OSC Instrument 51-502) is available here.

The CSA have also provided guidance on conducting shareholder meetings during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Members of IIROC and the MFDA

The measures taken to date by IIROC and the MFDA in respect of their members are described in this publication by our Disputes Group. We expect further information from these SROs shortly, particularly on meeting regulatory deadlines, including the implementation date for the new IIROC Rules (currently set for June 1, 2020).

Regulated entities in Ontario

Separate relief in Ontario extends filing deadlines for certain documents and information for regulated entities such as marketplaces, clearing agencies, designated trade repository, designated information processor and a commodity futures exchange. Similar to the other relief, the extensions are for 45 days after the original due date for the document and the regulated entity must disclose to the OSC when it provides the applicable document or information that it is relying on the order and give reasons why it could not submit the document by the original due date. The relief provides for a list of the requirements to which it applies.

The instrument evidencing the relief in Ontario (OSC Instrument 25-502) is available here.

Issuers listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TSX Venture Exchange:

The TSX has provided temporary blanket relief with respect to certain filings:

  • It will not require an issuer to file a Form 9 during 2020 for a late filing of its annual financial statements and/or its interim financial statements;
  • An issuer that must hold an annual meeting of security holders during 2020 is permitted to hold its 2020 Annual Meeting on any date up to and including December 31, 2020, regardless of the issuer's fiscal year end;
  • An issuer may continue to grant security based awards under a plan until the earlier of the 2020 Annual Meeting and December 31, 2020. Awards granted during this timeframe may be exercised absent ratification by security holders;
  • Up to and including June 30, 2020, TSX is modifying the volume of purchases condition so that the amount of normal course issuer bid purchases does not exceed 50 per cent of the average daily trading volume of the listed securities of that class; and
  • Up to and including December 31, 2020, TSX will not apply certain specified delisting criteria when determining whether to initiate a delisting review of an issuer's securities.

On a case-by-case basis, TSX will use a shorter time period to determine the "market price" for the purposes of pricing securities (including warrants) for private placements.

The TSXV has granted temporary extensions of deadlines:

  • Annual meetings for issuers that are required to hold an annual meeting during 2020 can be held at any date in 2020, up to and including December 31, 2020.
  • Shareholder approval of rolling stock option plans can be obtained at any time during 2020, up to and including December 31, 2020.

Other measures

The comment deadline for all regulatory publications (draft rules and policies) currently out for comment has been extended by 45 days. So far, there has been no announcement of any postponement of the effective dates for the client focused reforms, but we are aware of industry requests for this.

The CSA acknowledge that the situation is fluid and we expect there may be more action required. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you posted.

We understand that CSA staff are working remotely, but based on experience to date, they are available via usual email channels and are responding to telephone calls and filings. Work is being processed in the usual manner.

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