SUPPORTING STATEMENT:
Since 2020, when annual shareholders’ meetings began to be held
in virtual format because of COVID-19 health restrictions, we have
voiced numerous criticisms of the way these meetings are
organized1.
OECD Principles of Corporate Governance state that:
“[ ] due care is required to ensure that remote meetings do
not decrease the possibility for shareholders to engage with
and ask questions to boards and management in comparison
to physical meetings. Some jurisdictions have issued guidance
to facilitate the conduct of remote meetings, including for
handling shareholder questions, responses and their
disclosure, with the objective of ensuring transparent
consideration of questions by boards and management,
including how questions are collected, combined, answered
and disclosed. Such guidance may also address how to deal
with technological disruptions that may impede virtual access
to meetings.2”
Virtual meetings provide benefits that we readily acknowledge, but
they should not be an excuse for not holding face-to-face
meetings. Like Teachers’3, we believe that annual shareholders’
meetings should be held in person, with virtual meetings being
held in addition to (in hybrid fashion, as all banks did in 2023), but
not in replacement of, face-to-face meetings. We all agree that all
shareholders should enjoy the same rights, whether they
participate in person or remotely. This position is supported by
many organizations, including the Canadian Coalition for Good
Governance (CCGG)4 and a number of major institutional investors.