Canada’s lobbyist registries: What can they tell investors about corporate lobbying?
This briefing note rates federal and provincial lobbyist registries against a series of transparency measures in order to determine how effective current public registries are in providing disclosure of corporate lobbying. It includes five key recommendations to enhance the transparency and usefulness of lobbyist registries in Canada.
Is Canadian trade association lobbying aligned with Canada’s Paris Agreements commitments?
This briefing note examines arguments made by over 20 Canadian trade associations representing publicly-traded companies that actively lobby on climate change issues, and provides a set of questions that member companies and their shareholders can raise to ensure greater clarity as the climate policy debate continues.
Business and Reconciliation: How can investors evaluate the efforts of Canadian public companies?
This report introduces a new investor-led effort to put reconciliation on the agenda for Canadian companies. Step one: bring reconciliation and Indigenous relations into the open through better corporate disclosure, which the report finds is often incomplete, inconsistent or lacking altogether.
Off the Ballot: Why Alberta’s business laws need to catch up on shareholder democracy
Shareholders of Alberta-incorporated companies face regulatory impediments under the Alberta Business Corporations Act (ABCA) making it effectively impossible for shareholders to file resolutions to be voted at company’s annual meeting. This report compares Alberta-incorporated companies on the TSX-Composite Index to their peers and finds Alberta-incorporated companies lag on the issues of gender diversity, corporate governance, and disclosures of information related to climate change.
ISSUE BRIEFS
SHARE regularly publishes research reports, case studies and investor briefs based on our environmental, social and governance issue areas.
Canada’s lobbyist registries: What can they tell investors about corporate lobbying?
This briefing note rates federal and provincial lobbyist registries against a series of transparency measures in order to determine how effective current public registries are in providing disclosure of corporate lobbying. It includes five key recommendations to enhance the transparency and usefulness of lobbyist registries in Canada.
Is Canadian trade association lobbying aligned with Canada’s Paris Agreement commitments?
This briefing note examines arguments made by over 20 Canadian trade associations representing publicly-traded companies that actively lobby on climate change issues, and provides a set of questions that member companies and their shareholders can raise to ensure greater clarity as the climate policy debate continues.
Business and reconciliation: How can investors evaluate the efforts of Canadian public companies?
This report introduces a new investor-led effort to put reconciliation on the agenda for Canadian companies. Step one: bring reconciliation and Indigenous relations into the open through better corporate disclosure, which the report finds is often incomplete, inconsistent or lacking altogether.
The Rise of Supply Chain Transparency Legislation: What is at stake for Canadian investors?
Canada’s regulatory framework for human rights due diligence in global supply chains lags that of other jurisdictions, and that’s a concern for Canadian institutional investors. This report reviews supply chain transparency legislation around the world and argues that similar federal legislation here in Canada could be beneficial to investors if properly crafted.
PROXY VOTING REPORTS
SHARE’s Model Proxy Voting Guidelines are updated annually to ensure up-to-date guidance on corporate governance, environmental and social issues emerging on company proxy ballots.
2017 SHARE Model Proxy Voting Guidelines
SHARE provides a comprehensive set of proxy voting guidelines for institutional investors. Our guidelines incorporate conventions and guidelines from international bodies such as the UN, the OECD and the ILO.
2017 Lignes directrices sur le vote par procuration
Le principe global de l’interprétation et l’application de ces lignes directrices est de suivre une démarche qui servira au mieux les intérêts des participants du régime et des bénéficiaires.
Voting for Value: Key vote report
This report takes a look back at twenty noteworthy Canadian proxy votes that mattered in 2015. It revisits votes at seventeen companies in the S&P/TSX Composite Index that raised important ESG issues.
L’importance du vote des investisseurs
Ce rapport analyse vingt votes par procuration marquants de 2015 sélectionnés parmidix-
sept sociétés canadiennes cotées sur l´indice composé S&P/TSX.
POLICY POSITIONS
SHARE regularly submits recommendations to regulators and policy-makers regarding environmental, social and governance considerations in the financial sector.
Letter to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada
SHARE, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) and Ceres Investor Network on Climate Risks and Sustainability (INCR) wrote a joint statement to The Honorable Catherine McKenna MP to express support for strengthening regulations that would reduce the release of methane and certain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the upstream oil and gas sector.
SHARE and Addenda Capital wrote to the CSA to provide input into their consultation on climate change disclosures. Comments included ways in which investors are using climate-related disclosures as well as what is needed to better assess and mitigate climate-related risks in investment portfolios.
Submission to the Ontario Securities Commission’s 2017-18 Draft Statement of Priorities
SHARE wrote to Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) to comment on its annual priorities, asking that it initiate a market-wide consultation on the practicality of requiring issuers to adopt advisory “say on pay” votes.
Submission to the House Financial Services Committee
SHARE wrote to the US House Financial Services Committee about the draft legislation for the Financial Choice Act asking the committee to reject the seriously flawed anti-investor provisions. The bill aims to revoke various financial sector reforms introduced under the Dodd Frank act after the 2008 financial crisis.
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
SHARE publishes educational tools to help institutional investors learn more about responsible investment and how to integrate environmental, social and governance considerations into their investment practices.
Climate Change and the Fiduciary Duties of Pension Fund Trustees in Canada
SHARE commissioned Koskie Minsky LLP to prepare a report providing a legal perspective on Canadian pension trustees’ fiduciary duties in relation to the growing threat climate change poses to the value of their investments.
Responsible Investment Toolkit: Putting responsible investment into practice
A great place to start learning about responsible investment. The toolkit defines responsible investment and looks at various implementation strategies that are available to institutional investors.
The Promotion of Active Shareholdership for Corporate Social Responsibility in Canada
This report provides a feasibility study on how to facilitate the growth of shareholder activism in Canada as part of the larger socially responsible investment movement.
SHARE ANNUAL REPORTS
SHARE produces annual reports that cover services provided organization-wide, including shareholder engagement, proxy voting and investor edcuation.
Le rapport annuel de SHARE discute nos activités et nos réalisations en 2016. Le rapport met en lumière notre travail dans les domaines du changement climatique, de la surveillance et divulgation des dépenses politiques, du travail décent et de la création des marchés financiers durables.
SHARE’s organization-wide annual report outlines our activities and achievements over 2016. The report highlights our work in the areas of climate change, political spending, decent work and building sustainable capital markets.
Shareholder Engagement Plan Snapshot 2017
This snapshot of our shareholder engagement plan provides our broader stakeholders a picture of what SHARE will be up to in 2017.
Aperçu du plan d’engagement actionnarial 2017
Cet aperçu de notre plan d’engagement actionnarial fournit à nos parties prenantes un survol du travail de SHARE au courant de 2017.