The Portfolio Management Association of Canada (“PMAC”), through its Industry, Regulation & Tax Committee, is pleased to have the opportunity to provide comments on the proposed public interest amendments (the “Amendments”) to the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) Company Manual (the “Manual”) dated as of January 15, 2015. The Amendments apply to non corporate issuers comprising of exchange traded products, closed-end funds and structured products, by introducing a new Part XI to the Manual and amending Part I of the Manual. We understand that many of the Amendments codify existing TSX practice.
PMAC supports the initiative of the TSX to modernize the Manual and to codify existing practices pertaining to original listing requirements – doing so, we believe, helps foster both consistency and transparency in the marketplace. We also applaud the TSX’s efforts to consult managers of exchange-traded and closed-end funds, as well as to assess analogous rules of similarly situated exchanges such as NASDAQ and NYSE, in advance of proposing the Amendments.
While supportive of most of the proposals in the Amendments, we have some questions and concerns regarding certain Amendments. Our comments on the Amendments will focus on Sections 1111 and 1113 of the Manual. Specifically, we recommend that these sections be revisited to ensure their scope is not overly broad and to clarify what actions are caught under these provisions.