SUPPORTING STATEMENT: Since 2020, when annual meetings began to be held in virtual mode due to health restrictions relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have had numerous
criticisms regarding the conduct of these meetings.2
The OECD’s Principles of Corporate Governance state:
"[...] 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.3
”
We recognize the benefits of virtual meetings, but they should not be used as a substitute for in-person meetings. Like Teachers’,
4
we believe that annual
shareholder meetings should be held in person, with virtual meetings as a complement (in a hybrid format, such as all banks have done so by 2023), without
replacing in-person meetings. It is understood that all shareholders should enjoy the same rights, regardless of whether they participate in person or remotely. This
position is supported by several organizations, including the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance (CCGG)5
and many major institutional investors