In March 2020, The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has put in place the option of confidentially pre-filing a prospectus, as part of the OSC’s burden reduction initiative. In recent months, the OSC has seen a significant number of confidential pre-files, which provides issuers with greater flexibility and more certainty in planning their prospectus offerings. The best practices recommended by the OSC include (i) pre-filed prospectuses should contain all financial and non-financial disclosure, (ii) a timeline should be included in the filed cover letter and (iii) all legal or accounting questions should be highlighted where OSC staff input is required.
January 29, 2021