CSA Staff Notice 11-312 (Revised) National Numbering System

December 12, 2024¹

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) follows a system in which securities regulatory instruments are assigned numbers that indicate the type and subject matter of the instrument.

The numbering system was designed so as to:

(i) convey as much information as possible about the particular instrument so that a user knows what type of instrument it is, whether the instrument is national, multilateral or local and what subject matter it relates to;

(ii) permit all National² Instruments/Multilateral Instruments, National Policies/Multilateral Policies and CSA Notices to have the same numbers in all jurisdictions (as is currently the case); and

(iii) be flexible enough to permit Local Rules, Policies, Notices and implementing instruments of all jurisdictions to be numbered in accordance with the numbering system without affecting the numbering of National Instruments/Multilateral Instruments, National Policies/Multilateral Policies and CSA Notices³.

Under the numbering system, each instrument is assigned a five-digit number, with a hyphen appearing between the second and third digit. There are four components to the number assigned to a document:

• The first digit represents the broad subject area.
• The second digit represents a sub-category of the broad subject area.
• The third digit represents the type of the document.
• The last two digits represent the number of the document within its document type in its sub-category (in sequential order starting at 01).

More specifically, these four components may be described as follows:

• The first digit relates to the subject matter category into which the instrument has been classified. The nine subject matter categories are:

  1. Procedures and Related Matters
  2. Certain Capital Market Participants (Self-Regulatory Organizations, Exchanges and Market Operations)
  3. Registration Requirements and Related Matters (Dealers, Advisers and other Registrants)
  4. Distribution Requirements (Prospectus Requirements and Prospectus Exemptions)
  5. Ongoing Requirements for Issuers and Insiders (Continuous Disclosure)
  6. Take-over Bids and Special Transactions
  7. Securities Transactions Outside the Jurisdiction
  8. Investment Funds
  9. Derivatives

  
  For example, in the context of 54-101, the number “5” indicates that the instrument relates to Ongoing Requirements for Issuers and Insiders.

• The second digit relates to the sub-category of the subject matter category into which the instrument has been classified (see the “sub-category” column of the table below).

  Using the 54-101 example, within the Ongoing Requirements for Issuers and Insiders category, a sub-category for instruments dealing with Proxy Solicitation is denoted by the number “4”. Accordingly, all instruments dealing with this matter commence with the numbers “54”.

• The third digit classifies the document as one of nine types of documents:

  1. National Instrument/Multilateral Instrument and any related Companion Policy or Form(s)
  2. National Policy/Multilateral Policy
  3. CSA Notice
  4. CSA Concept Proposal or Discussion Paper
  5. Local Rule, Regulation or Blanket Order or Ruling and any related Companion Policy or Form(s), except an Implementing Instrument described below.
  6. Local Policy
  7. Local Notice
  8. Implementing Instrument⁴
  9. Miscellaneous

  
  Using the same example, the third digit in 54-101 indicates that the type of instrument is a National Instrument or Multilateral Instrument (or a related Companion Policy or Form).

• The fourth and fifth digits represent a number assigned to instruments of the same type in consecutive order from 01 to 99 within a particular sub-category. 
  
  Again, using the example 54-101, the number “01” indicates that the instrument is the first document of its type in the sub-category “Proxy Solicitation”.

A Companion Policy or Form that is related to an Instrument or Local Rule will have the same number as the Instrument or Local Rule to which it relates, followed by “F” in the case of a Form. If there is more than one Form related to a particular instrument, the Forms will be numbered consecutively (F1, F2, F3, etc.).

In 2023, the CSA introduced a Coordinated Blanket Order format, which is used to reflect the fact that all or several CSA members are issuing the same (or similar) exemptive relief. The coordinated CSA blanket orders are designated by the third digit (document type) 9, for example, Coordinated Blanket Order 13-932, Exemptions from certain filing requirements in connection with the launch of the System for Electronic Data Analysis and Retrieval +. In this number, the first two digits represent the subject matter category and sub-category, the third digit represents the document type (coordinated blanket order), and the last two digits represent the consecutive number assigned to this instrument in this category and document type. Generally, CSA coordinated blanket order numbers will start with xx-930 because the document type number 9 could have been previously used for miscellaneous documents.

Category, Sub-Category and Document Type Numbers

Questions

Please refer your questions to any of the following people: