"“Since 2020, the year when annual meetings began to be held virtually due to health restrictions relating to
COVID-19, we have raised numerous criticisms regarding the conduct of these meetings.8

The following is written in the OECD Governance Principles:
“[…] it is necessary to scrupulously ensure that remote meetings do not reduce, compared to
physical meetings, the opportunity offered to shareholders to have a dialogue with boards of
directors and officers and to ask them questions. Some jurisdictions have provided guidance to
facilitate the holding of remote meetings, in particular with regard to the handling of questions
submitted to shareholders, shareholder responses, and their dissemination, with the aim of
ensuring transparent consideration of questions by boards and management, including the manner
in which questions are collected, combined, processed and communicated. Such guidance may
also address how to manage disruptions related to technological tools that may hinder remote
access to meetings.”9
We acknowledge the benefits of virtual meetings but believes they should not replace in-person meetings.
In light of Teachers’
10, our view is that annual shareholder meetings should be held in person, with virtual
meetings serving as a supplement (in a hybrid format, as all banks have done in 2023) without replacing
in-person meetings. All shareholders must enjoy the same rights, regardless of their method of participation,
be it in person or remotely. This position is supported by several organizations, notably the Canadian
Coalition for Good Governance (CCGG)11 and many major institutional investors."