Definitions

National Instrument 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Part 3 Specified Financial Measure Disclosure

Section 8

Non-GAAP Ratios

An issuer must not disclose a non-GAAP ratio in a document unless all of the following apply:

(a) the non-GAAP ratio is labelled using a term that, given the non-GAAP ratio’s composition, describes the nonGAAP ratio;

(b) the non-GAAP ratio is presented with no more prominence in the document than that of similar financial measures disclosed in the primary financial statements of the entity to which the non-GAAP ratio relates;

(i) explains that the non-GAAP ratio is not a standardized financial measure under the financial reporting framework used to prepare the financial statements of the entity to which the non-GAAP ratio relates and might not be comparable to similar financial measures disclosed by other issuers,

(ii) discloses each non-GAAP financial measure that is used as a component of the non-GAAP ratio,

(iii) discloses, directly or by incorporating it by reference as permitted under section 5, an explanation of

(A) the composition of the non-GAAP ratio,

(B) how the non-GAAP ratio provides useful information to an investor and explains the additional
purposes, if any, for which management uses the non-GAAP ratio, and

(C) if the label or the composition of the non-GAAP ratio has changed from what was previously
disclosed, an explanation of the reason for the change;

(d) if the non-GAAP ratio is disclosed in MD&A or in an earnings release of the issuer, the non-GAAP ratio for a comparative period, determined using the same means of calculation, is disclosed in the document, unless

(i) the non-GAAP ratio is forward-looking information, or

(ii) it is impracticable to disclose the measure for the comparative period.

Companion Policy to NI 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Introduction

National Instrument 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure (the “Instrument”) sets out specific disclosure requirements for non-GAAP financial measures, non-GAAP ratios, and other financial measures, which are capital management measures, supplementary financial measures, and total of segments measures, as defined in the Instrument (together the “specified financial measures”). The purpose of this Companion Policy (the “Policy”) is to explain how the provincial and territorial regulatory authorities interpret or apply certain provisions of the Instrument. This Policy includes explanations, discussions, and examples of various parts of the Instrument. This Policy contains, as Appendix A, a flow chart outlining the process for assessing specified financial measures. The flow chart is for illustrative purposes only and, in all cases, reference should be made to the precise language of the Instrument.

Companion Policy to NI 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Introduction

Interpretation of “made available to the public” and “filed”, “delivered” or “submitted”

Documents made available to the public include not only information filed on SEDAR but also information on a website and disclosure provided through social media platforms.

The Instrument uses the terms “filed” and “submitted”. This Policy also uses the term “delivered”. Material that is filed in a jurisdiction will be made available to the public in that jurisdiction, subject to the provisions of securities legislation in the local jurisdiction. Material that is delivered to a regulator or securities regulatory authority, or submitted to a recognized exchange, but not filed, is not generally required under securities legislation to be made available to the public.

Companion Policy to NI 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Re s. 1

Definition of primary financial statements

The Instrument uses the terms “statement of financial position”, “statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income”, “statement of changes in equity”, and “statement of cash flows”, to describe the primary financial statements. Issuers may use titles for the statements other than those terms if the titles comply with the financial reporting framework used in the preparation of the financial statements. For example, an issuer may use the title of “balance sheet” instead of “statement of financial position”.

Companion Policy to NI 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Introduction

Entity

An “entity” may include, but is not limited to:

An issuer, meaning a person or company that has outstanding securities, is issuing securities, or proposes to issue securities;
An affiliate or a subsidiary of an issuer;
A company, such as a corporation, incorporated association, incorporated syndicate or other incorporated organization;
A person, such as a partnership, unincorporated association, unincorporated syndicate, unincorporated organization or a trust;
A group of assets of an issuer for which financial statements are prepared, whether or not the asset or group of assets are held in a legal entity; or
Two or more issuers or portions of an issuer that are not all linked by a parent-subsidiary relationship, typically referred to as a “combined entity”.

An entity is not necessarily a legal person or company.

Companion Policy to NI 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Introduction

Financial Reporting Framework, Accounting Principles, and Accounting Policies

In Canada, there are different financial reporting frameworks for different types of entities. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”) is a common term used to refer to a financial reporting framework that comprises the accounting principles that are generally accepted in a jurisdiction. National Instrument 52-107 Accounting and Auditing Principles prescribes, among other things, acceptable accounting principles, such as International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”).

The application of accounting principles often requires specific accounting policies. Accounting policies encompass all accounting policies applied in preparing and presenting financial statements, not just those which are disclosed in the notes to the financial statements.

Companion Policy to NI 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Definitions

Re s. 1

Definition of a supplementary financial measure

Component Information

An issuer that operates in the retail industry may disclose financial results for “same-store sales” each reporting period. When same-store sales, a component of overall sales, is calculated in accordance with the accounting policies used to prepare the sales line item presented in the primary financial statements, it would not meet the definition of a non-GAAP financial measure. However, since in this example “same-store sales” is used by the issuer to depict financial performance by reporting sales performance from period to period, it would meet the definition of a supplementary financial measure.

Conversely, when the measure is not calculated in accordance with the issuer’s accounting policies, such measure would meet the definition of a non-GAAP financial measure. For example, if the sales figure in “same-store sales” is sales presented on a constant-dollar basis, this constant-dollar sales figure meets the definition of a non-GAAP financial measure since it excludes amounts (i.e., the effect of foreign exchange differences) that are included in the most directly comparable financial measure presented in the primary financial statements (i.e., sales). As a result, the “constant dollar same-store sales” measure in this example would meet the definition of a non-GAAP financial measure or the “constant dollar same-store sales per square foot” measure would meet the definition of a non-GAAP ratio.

If an issuer discloses a financial measure that is a component of a financial statement line item to explain how the financial statement line item changed from period to period (in dollars or as a percentage, for instance), such a measure would not meet the definition of a supplementary financial measure if the measure is not intended to be disclosed on a periodic basis. For example, if an issuer experienced an unexpected increase in administrative expenses, it may analyze the reasons for changes in administrative expenses by, among other things, disclosing information about its insurance expense, a component of overall administrative expenses. In this example, insurance expense would not meet the definition of a supplementary financial measure because, among other things, the insurance expense was calculated in accordance with the accounting policies used to prepare the administrative expenses line item presented in the primary financial statements.

Periodic Basis

An element of the definition of a supplementary financial measure is that it is disclosed or is intended to be disclosed on a periodic basis. A measure will not be precluded from being considered a supplementary financial measure the first time it is disclosed if the measure is intended to be disclosed on an ongoing basis (e.g., in future quarterly and/or annual disclosures).

Financial Ratios

A financial ratio that is not a non-GAAP ratio would typically meet the definition of supplementary financial measure because such ratio is often disclosed on a periodic basis to depict historical or future financial performance, financial position or cash flow.

Financial ratios contain at least one financial component (either the numerator or the denominator).

Examples include, but are not limited to the following ratios:

Liquidity ratios such as the current ratio;
Solvency ratios such as the debt-to-equity ratio;
Profitability ratios such as the return on equity ratio or revenue per user; and
Activity ratios such as the inventory turnover ratio.

Companion Policy to NI 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Definitions

Re s. 1

Definition of a non-GAAP financial measure

Common terms used to identify non-GAAP financial measures include “adjusted earnings”, “adjusted EBITDA”, “free cash flow”, “pro forma earnings”, “cash earnings”, “distributable cash”, “adjusted funds from operations”, “earnings before non-recurring items” and measures presented on a constant-currency basis. Many of these terms lack standard meanings. Issuers across a spectrum of industries, and within the same industry, may use the same term to refer to different compositions.

The following are examples of measures that are not captured by the definition:

Amounts that do not depict historical or future “financial performance”, “financial position” or “cash flow”, which relate to elements of the primary financial statements as defined in the Instrument, such as share price, market capitalization, or credit rating;
Financial information that does not have the effect of providing a financial measure that is different from a financial measure presented in the primary financial statements, such as the addition or subtraction of an identical line item, or a subtotal or total originating from multiple periods of primary financial statements. For example, rolling 12-month results or fourth quarter revenue calculated by subtracting year-to-date third quarter revenue from the annual revenue presented in primary financial statements; or
A financial measure which does not exclude an amount that is included in, or include an amount that is excluded from, the composition of the most directly comparable financial measure presented in the primary financial statements of the entity. For example, assets under management representing the total market value of invested assets managed by the issuer which are beneficially owned by clients and not reported in the primary financial statements of the issuer.

Component Information

When an issuer presents a financial statement line item in a more granular way outside the financial statements, otherwise known as a disaggregation, that number is a component of a line item that has been calculated in accordance with the accounting policies used to prepare the line item presented in the financial statements. Such a financial measure would not be a non-GAAP financial measure because it is not a financial measure which excludes an amount that is included in, or includes an amount that is excluded from, the composition of the most directly comparable financial measure presented in the primary financial statements of the entity. However, even though such a measure would not be a non-GAAP financial measure, it may still meet the definition of a supplementary financial measure.

For example, an issuer may disclose sales per square foot on a periodic basis to depict its financial performance. When the sales figure, included in sales per square foot, is extracted directly from the primary financial statements or is a component of such line item (when the component is calculated in accordance with the issuer’s accounting policies used to prepare the line item presented in the financial statements), the “sales per square foot” measure would not meet the definition of a non-GAAP ratio but would meet the definition of a supplementary financial measure. However, if the sales figure is not calculated in accordance with the issuer’s accounting policies, the “sales per square foot” measure in this example would meet the definition of a non-GAAP ratio.

Combinations of Line Items

A financial measure calculated by combining financial information that originates from different line items from the primary financial statements would meet the definition of a non-GAAP financial measure if the measure depicts financial performance, financial position or cash flow, unless that resulting measure is separately disclosed in the notes to the financial statements.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures that are Forward-looking Information

Forward-looking information for which there is an equivalent historical financial measure disclosed in the financial statements does not meet the definition of a non-GAAP financial measure. Therefore, section 7 of the Instrument does not apply to measures such as future capital management measures and future total of segments measures.

In addition, if, for example, revenue is disclosed on a forward-looking basis using the accounting policies applied by the issuer in its latest set of financial statements (i.e., revenue as presented in the primary financial statements adjusted only for assumptions about future economic conditions and courses of action), this forward-looking revenue is not a non-GAAP financial measure. Conversely, if an issuer discloses EBITDA on a forward-looking basis and does not disclose this financial measure in the financial statements, this forward-looking EBITDA does meet the definition of a non-GAAP financial measure that is forward-looking information.

Issuers are reminded that forward-looking information is subject to the disclosure requirements in Parts 4A and 4B and section 5.8 of National Instrument 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations (“NI 51-102”).

Non-Financial Information

For clarity, the definition of a non-GAAP financial measure does not include non-financial information such as the following:

Number of units;
Number of subscribers;
Volumetric information;
Number of employees or workforce by type of contract or geographical location;
Environmental measures such as greenhouse gas emissions;
Information on major shareholdings;
Acquisition or disposal of the issuer’s own shares; and
Total number of voting rights.

The above list is not exhaustive.

We remind issuers that while non-financial information is not subject to the requirements of the Instrument, non-financial information is subject to various disclosure requirements under applicable securities legislation, including the requirement not to disclose misleading information.

National Instrument 52-112 Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures Disclosure

Part 3 Specified Financial Measure Disclosure

Section 7

Non-GAAP financial measures that are forward-looking information

(1) In this section,

“equivalent historical non-GAAP financial measure” means a non-GAAP financial measure that is historical information and has the same composition as a non-GAAP financial measure that is forward-looking information;

“SEC issuer” has the meaning ascribed to it in National Instrument 52-107 Acceptable Accounting Principles and Auditing Standards.

(2) An issuer must not disclose a non-GAAP financial measure that is forward-lookinginformation in a document unless all of the following apply:

(a) the document discloses an equivalent historical non-GAAP financial measure;

(b) the non-GAAP financial measure that is forward-looking information is labelled using the same label used for the equivalent historical non-GAAP financial measure;

(c) the non-GAAP financial measure that is forward-looking information ispresented with no more prominence in the document than that of the equivalent historical non-GAAP financial measure;

(d) in proximity to the first instance of the non-GAAP financial measure that is forward-looking information in the document, the document discloses, directly or by incorporating it by reference as permitted under section 5, a description of any significant difference between the non-GAAP financial measure that is forward-looking information and the equivalent historical non-GAAP financial measure.

(3) Subsection (2) does not apply if the disclosure is made

(a) by an SEC issuer, and

(b) in compliance with Regulation G under the 1934 Act.