On October 4, 2018, the Canadian Securities Administrators (the
CSA) published amendments (the Amendments) to National Instrument
81-102 Investments Funds (NI 81-102) and National
Instrument 81-104 Commodity Pools (NI 81-104) to establish
the new "alternative mutual funds" regime. Subject to
Ministerial approval, the Amendments will come into force on
January 3, 2019.
Canadian public investment funds, including conventional mutual
funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and non-redeemable funds (i.e.,
closed-ended funds) are subject to investment restrictions and
limitations under NI 81-102. Historically, exceptions to these
restrictions were provided for commodity pools, which were
specialized mutual funds permitted to invest in derivatives and
physical commodities under former NI 81-104 in a manner not
permitted for other Canadian public investment funds. The
alternative mutual funds regime modernizes the commodity pool
regime by expanding the scope of alternative