SUPPORTING STAEMENT: Like many investors, we read the ESG reports produced by our Canadian banks, hoping to find accurate, reliable and complete information. Although a number of banks use audit firms to provide limited assurance of the quality of the information presented in the report, we believe that it would be appropriate for the Bank to review the level of assurance of its report in order to avoid criticism alleging greenwashing, as is now often the case. According to a recent report by PwC17: “In Canada, only 8% of companies in our analysis subject their sustainability reporting to the same level of reasonable assurance as their financial statements.” According to the experts who wrote the report, “Limited assurance is a good first step. But it’s only an interim measure in the eyes of regulators and investors. Our Global Investor Survey 2022 explored the factors that increase confidence in assessing the accuracy of an organization’s sustainability reporting. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of investors in Canadian companies say reasonable assurance helps. By contrast, only 46% feel the same way about limited assurance – underscoring the importance of preparing for reasonable assurance and producing investor-grade ESG reporting.” We believe that reasonable assurance every three years could help to reassure all stakeholders about the quality of the information disclosed. “A practitioner can provide two types of assurance engagements: a reasonable assurance engagement or a limited assurance engagement. The nature, timing and extent of procedures performed in a limited assurance engagement is limited compared with that necessary in a reasonable assurance engagement, but is still planned to obtain a level of assurance that is, in the practitioner’s professional judgment, meaningful18”.