Canadian securities regulators announce filing relief for issuers due to the coronavirus

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Canada | Publication | March 19, 2020 - 9 PM ET

In response to the mounting as COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis, the CSA announced it will provide blanket relief from certain regulatory filings required to be filed on or before June 1, 2020.

Continuous disclosure relief

The proposed relief will provide a blanket 45-day extension from existing deadlines for periodic filings required to be made by issuers on or before June 1, 2020, including annual financial statements, MD&A and annual information forms. Further details of the relief will be published shortly.

The extension applies to all issuers. For those with a December 31 year-end, the extensions are as follows:

TSX-listed issuers

	Original Deadline	New deadline
Annual filing deadline (year-end financials, MD&A and AIF)	March 30	May 14
Q1 filing deadline	May 15	June 29

TSX-Venture and CSE-listed issuers

	Original Deadline	New deadline
Annual filing deadline (year-end financials, MD&A and AIF)	April 29	June 15
Q1 filing deadline	June 1	July 14

The requirement to file a management cease-trade order, announced earlier this week, no longer applies to issuers who will miss a deadline as a result of the coronavirus, provided they comply with the soon-to-be-announced relief conditions.

The relief will allow issuers to focus on critical business decisions surrounding the virus.

Virtual shareholder meetings

In addition, the CSA has indicated it will soon be issuing guidance on annual general meetings in light of issuers considering virtual meetings to mitigate the risk of transmission of the coronavirus.

We will keep you posted as further details become available.