Bill 294 explained in plain English
Securities Amendment Act (Climate Risk Financial Disclosure), 2021
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
This bill would require certain Ontario issuers and reporting issuers to conduct and disclose climate-related risk assessments when filing prospectuses.
Bill 294, the Securities Amendment Act (Climate Risk Financial Disclosure), 2021, proposes to require certain companies in Ontario to assess and disclose climate-related risks. This would involve conducting risk assessments under various future scenarios to identify potential impacts on the company's financial value. The bill outlines specific types of climate risks and scenarios to consider, and mandates that these assessments be completed before issuing a prospectus and updated annually. It also makes amendments to the Securities Act to incorporate these new requirements.
- Adds a new Part XIV.1 to the Securities Act to establish requirements for climate-related risk assessments.
- Defines "climate-related risk assessment" as a risk assessment conducted according to section 51.1 of the Act.
- Amends the definition of "material change" in the Securities Act to include risks identified through a climate-related risk assessment.
- Requires issuers and reporting issuers to conduct assessments of climate-related risks in specific scenarios to identify material facts and changes.
- Mandates that these assessments be completed before preparing a prospectus and updated annually.
- Specifies three types of climate-related risks: physical impacts, non-physical changes, and potential legal liability.
- Outlines four scenarios for conducting the risk assessment, including maintaining current practices, meeting Paris Agreement targets, limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and a scenario where global temperature increases to 4 degrees Celsius, with a provision for other scenarios prescribed by regulation.
- Allows the Lieutenant Governor in Council to make regulations about assumptions, data, methodologies, and additional scenarios for climate-related risk assessments.
- Amends subsection 56 (2) of the Securities Act to require a climate-related risk assessment, completed within six months before filing, to accompany a prospectus.
- Amends subsection 143 (1) of the Securities Act to allow for regulations governing assumptions, data, or methodologies for climate-related risk assessments.
- States that the Act comes into force six months after receiving Royal Assent.
- Issuers
- Reporting issuers
- The Lieutenant Governor in Council (for making regulations)
- Issuers and reporting issuers are required to conduct climate-related risk assessments.
- These assessments must be completed before preparing a prospectus and updated annually.
- A completed climate-related risk assessment must accompany a prospectus.
- The Act comes into force six months after it receives Royal Assent.
- The bill requires risk assessments that could identify impacts on the market price or value of securities, which may have financial implications for issuers and investors.
- The bill does not specify penalties for non-compliance.
- The specific content of regulations regarding assumptions, data, methodologies, and additional scenarios for climate-related risk assessments are not detailed in the bill.
- The bill does not specify penalties for non-compliance with the new requirements.
This bill amends the Securities Act by adding new requirements for conducting and disclosing climate-related risk assessments.
Source: Part XIV.1, section 51.1, and subsection 143 (1)
The definition of a material change is updated to include risks identified through a climate-related risk assessment.
Source: section 1 (2) and (3)
A climate-related risk assessment completed within six months before filing must now accompany a prospectus.
Source: section 3
This amendment allows for regulations to govern the assumptions, data, or methodologies used in climate-related risk assessments.
Source: section 4
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
This bill is still moving through the process. When a recorded division is published, representative positions can be listed here.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced