Canadian Securities Regulators Launch Online Fee Guide

The new SEDAR Regulatory Fee Guide is a web-based application that, based on entered filing information, identifies the relevant regulatory filing fees in all Canadian jurisdictions. The tool also displays a legislative reference on how the fee applies in each jurisdiction within the final search results of a query.

“The SEDAR Regulatory Fee Guide allows market participants to generate a multi-jurisdictional fee report by simply entering in their filing information,” said Jean St-Gelais, CSA Chair. “This new online tool gives SEDAR users a faster, simpler and easier way to calculate the filing fees of various securities commissions.”

As part of its work to harmonize fees, the CSA surveyed SEDAR users, who ranked fee harmonization, consolidation and automation as the three highest priorities they wanted to see addressed by Canadian securities regulators. SEDAR is the electronic filing system for the disclosure documents of public companies and mutual funds.

SEDAR does not automatically calculate fees, and implementing the system changes required to automate calculations in the current system would not be cost-effective. The CSA is studying how to address SEDAR user concerns most cost-effectively. In the meantime, the CSA provides the online fee guide to help market participants identify regulatory filing fees for SEDAR filings.

The SEDAR Regulatory Fee Guide is available in both English and French at www.securities-administrators.ca in the “Industry Resources” dropdown menu of the website.

The guide will be updated as filing fees change. However, it does not include CDS Clearing and Depository Services Inc. fees that may be associated with SEDAR filings. The CSA continues to work on harmonizing fees across jurisdictions.

The CSA, the council of securities regulators of Canada’s provinces and territories, coordinates and harmonizes regulation for the Canadian capital markets.