Ongoing Disclosure

Reporting issuers (public companies) are required to provide certain ongoing disclosure under securities legislation. Many of those obligations are set out in National Instrument 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations.

This national instrument harmonizes the continuous disclosure requirements across Canada and imposes various ongoing disclosure obligations on reporting issuers (public companies) such as relating to:

Annual audited financial statements,
Quarterly/interim financial statements,
Management’s discussion and analysis (MD&A),
Annual information forms (AIF),
Forward-looking information,
Material change reporting, including news releases,
Business acquisition reporting,
Proxy solicitations and information circulars (including executive compensation disclosure),
Restricted security disclosure, and
Material contracts and other documents.

Reporting issuers are also subject to other disclosure obligations, including in relation to:

Disclosure of oil and gas activities (NI 51-101),
Disclosure of mineral projects (NI 43-101),
Corporate governance rules and guidance (NI 58-101 and NP 58-201),
Audit committees (NI 52-110),
Disclosure controls and internal controls over financial reporting (NI 52-109) .

In addition, certain of the directors, officers and other insiders of a reporting issuer are subject to certain reporting obligations when they buy, sell or otherwise deal in securities of the reporting issuer. See National instrument 55-104 Insider Reporting Requirements and Exemptions.

For information on the guidance the CSA and ASC have issued in respect of the disclosure obligations of reporting issuers and their insiders refer to Ongoing Requirements for Issuers and Insiders page.

Disclosure Review Programs

In order to encourage high-quality financial reporting, the ASC conducts reviews of financial statements and the other ongoing or continuous disclosure, described above, required of public companies of companies headquartered in Alberta.

This is in addition to the review of offering documents, and is aimed at information that companies provide on an ongoing basis.

In their review, ASC staff identify recurring and significant deficiencies and ensure that companies and their professional advisors resolve any issues that arise. As these concerns are communicated to industry, the ASC anticipates that the quality of disclosure will continue to improve.