Montreal – The Canadian Securities Administrators
(CSA) announced today that they are seeking comment on proposed
amendments to the CSA’s corporate governance and audit committee
regimes.

The proposed governance and audit committee regimes introduce changes
in three main areas:

• National Policy 58-201 Corporate Governance Principles would
  be a more principles-based policy that is broader in scope than
  the current policy.
• More general disclosure requirements would replace the existing
  “comply or explain” disclosure model set out in National
  Instrument 58-101 Disclosure of Corporate Governance Practices.
• A principles-based approach to determining director and audit
  committee member independence would replace the current approach
  in National Instrument 52-110 Audit Committees.

“The proposed governance regime is intended to provide greater
transparency for the marketplace regarding issuers’ corporate
governance practices and to provide guidance to issuers,”
said Jean St-Gelais, Chair of the CSA and President & Chief
Executive Officer of the Autorité des marchés financiers.
“We think the revised audit committee regime would continue
to provide a framework for establishing and maintaining strong,
effective and independent audit committees.”

The CSA is requesting comments on the following documents by April
20, 2009:

• Proposed NP 58-201 Corporate Governance Principles
  and NI 58-101 Disclosure of Corporate Governance Practices.
• Proposed NI 52-110 Audit Committees and its related
  companion policy 52-110CP and,
• Consequential amendments to other rules and policies.

The proposed national instruments and policies are available on
various CSA members’ websites, along with the CSA Notice and
Request for Comment that outlines specific requests for comment.

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

For more information: