An investment fund must include in its prospectus and/or AIF, as applicable, a summary of the policies and procedures that the fund follows when voting proxies relating to portfolio securities. [FN 26]
Further, an investment fund is also required to promptly send the most recent copy of its proxy voting policies and procedures to any securityholder upon request. [FN 27]
Disclosure of a fund’s proxy voting policies and procedures can provide clarity to investors about the ways in which proxy voting is used by ESG Funds to achieve their ESG-related investment objectives, including the scope and limits of their use.
If a fund uses proxy voting as an ESG investment strategy, the prospectus and/or AIF, as applicable, is required to include a summary of the ESG aspects of the fund’s proxy voting policies and procedures. This summary would provide clarity about how the voting rights attached to the fund’s portfolio securities will be used to further the fund’s ESG-related investment objectives, or in the case of a fund that does not have ESG-related investment objectives but that uses proxy voting as an ESG strategy, how the ESG-related proxy voting strategy is implemented.
In order to provide investors with greater transparency, staff also encourage investment funds to make the most recent copy of their proxy voting policies and procedures available on their designated websites.
FN 26 Item 30.1 of Form 41-101F2; Item 4.15(5) of Part A of Form 81-101F1; Item 12(7) of Form 81-101F2.
FN 27 Subsection 10.4(3) of National Instrument 81-106 Investment Fund Continuous Disclosure (NI 81-106).