Calgary – The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), except Ontario and British Columbia, today published for comment proposed amendments to National Instrument 13-101 System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) and Multilateral Instrument 13-102 System Fees for SEDAR and NRD (the proposed amendments). The 60-day comment period ends on August 31, 2015.

The proposed amendment would require certain exempt market filings, which are currently filed in paper format, to be filed in electronic format on SEDAR.  These filings include the report of exempt distribution and the offering memorandum.  The proposed amendments would also require issuers to pay a system fee of $25 per filing of a report of exempt distribution.

Electronic filing on SEDAR will benefit issuers by:

• enabling issuers to make filings in multiple jurisdictions through one electronic submission;
• allowing both reporting issuers and non-reporting issuers to have their filings with the participating jurisdictions in one electronic location under a SEDAR profile; and
• allowing issuers to verify the accuracy and completeness of their filing record without having to make an information request to the applicable jurisdiction.

 “The goal of these amendments is to improve the efficiency of the current system. Enabling electronic filings will benefit issuers who submit thousands of exempt market filings in paper format each year. It will also increase regulators’ ability to analyze those documents while reducing the administrative burden,” said Louis Morisset, CSA Chair and President and CEO of the Autorité des marchés financiers.

Ontario and British Columbia are not participating in the proposed amendments as they have local systems in place to receive these filings electronically.

The proposed amendments to National Instrument 13-101 System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) and Multilateral Instrument 13-102 System Fees for SEDAR and NRD can be found on the participating CSA members’ websites.

The CSA, the council of the securities regulators of Canada’s provinces and territories, co-ordinates and harmonizes regulation for the Canadian capital market. 

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