The Securities Commission has granted an exemption to SLGI Asset Management Inc. from the requirement under subsection 5.1(4) of National Instrument 81-101 Mutual Fund Prospectus Disclosure (NI 81-101). This requirement stipulates that a simplified prospectus for an alternative mutual fund must not be consolidated with a simplified prospectus of another mutual fund if the other mutual fund is not an alternative mutual fund.
The exemption allows SLGI Asset Management Inc. to consolidate the simplified prospectus of alternative mutual funds with those of conventional mutual funds, which are not alternative mutual funds, for which SLGI Asset Management Inc. or an affiliate acts as the investment fund manager. The rationale behind this decision is to reduce renewal, printing, and related costs, streamline disclosure across the fund platform, and facilitate easier comparison of features between alternative and conventional funds for investors.
The decision is based on representations from SLGI Asset Management Inc. that include their compliance with securities legislation, the operational and administrative commonalities between the alternative and conventional funds, and the continued provision of fund facts documents to investors as required by law. The exemption is also justified by the lack of a similar provision to subsection 5.1(4) of NI 81-101 in National Instrument 41-101 General Prospectus Requirements (NI 41-101), which governs exchange-traded funds (ETFs), allowing for consolidation of prospectuses for ETFs that are alternative mutual funds with those that are conventional mutual funds.
The principal regulator concluded that the exemption meets the test set out in the legislation and granted the exemption sought by SLGI Asset Management Inc.