Offering Memorandum Exemption Introduced In Ontario

A new method of raising financing takes effect in Ontario today. As anticipated in a previous alert, Ontario has adopted a prospectus exemption that allows issuers to distribute securities by preparing and delivering an offering memorandum (OM) in the required form. Five other provinces—Alberta, Saskatchewan, Québec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (together with Ontario, the Participating Provinces)—intend to change certain aspects of their existing OM exemption such that, in each case, it will be substantially harmonized with this new Ontario OM exemption. The result is that issuers will be able to raise capital across Canada by way of an OM exemption, though certain aspects of the exemption will continue to vary by jurisdiction.