The Securities Commission has granted an exemption to a conventional mutual fund managed by AGF Investments Inc., allowing it to file initial offering documents according to the pre-January 6, 2022 requirements of National Instrument 81-101 Mutual Fund Prospectus Disclosure (NI 81-101). This decision permits the mutual fund to prepare a simplified prospectus, an annual information form, and a fund facts document based on the previous standards, rather than the updated requirements that came into effect on January 6, 2022.
The rationale for this exemption is to enable the mutual fund to align its offering documents with those of the AGF Platform Funds family, which are currently based on the older requirements. This approach is deemed more efficient and cost-effective, avoiding the administrative burden and resource duplication that would arise from updating the documents to meet the new requirements for a single fund launch.
The exemption is conditional upon the mutual fund being incorporated into the AGF Platform Funds’ main prospectus upon its renewal in June 2023, at which point the offering documents will adhere to the current NI 81-101 requirements. Additionally, the mutual fund must disclose this exemption decision in its annual information form under the section titled “Exemptions and Approvals.”
This decision is supported by the Securities Act (Ontario) and is subject to the conditions outlined by the Ontario Securities Commission, which is the principal regulator for this application. The exemption is granted with the understanding that it will facilitate a smoother integration of the mutual fund into the AGF Platform Funds family and ultimately comply with the updated regulatory requirements by June 2023.