CSA Notice 44-303: Filing of Notice of Intention to be Qualified to File a Short Form Prospectus Under NI 44-101

CSA NOTICE 44-303

FILING OF NOTICE OF INTENTION

TO BE QUALIFIED TO FILE

A SHORT FORM PROSPECTUS UNDER

NATIONAL INSTRUMENT 44-101

SHORT FORM PROSPECTUS DISTRIBUTIONS

March 10, 2006

Background

On October 21, 2005, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) published a notice relating to the replacement of National Instrument 44-101 Short Form Prospectus Distributions (NI 44-101). NI 44-101 came into force on December 30, 2005.

CSA Notice 44-302 Replacement of National Instrument 44-101 Short Form Prospectus Distributions (CSA Notice 44-302) detailed the process for filing the qualification notice during the transition period from December 30, 2005 until SEDAR changes were in place to accommodate filing of the qualification notice under NI 44-101. The SEDAR changes became effective Monday, March 6, 2006.

Substance and Purpose

NI 44-101 modified the qualification, disclosure and other requirements of the short form prospectus system so that this prospectus system could build on and be more consistent with recent developments and initiatives of the CSA.

Process for Filing Notice of Intent to be Qualified to File Short Form Prospectus under NI 44-101

Section 2.8(1) of NI 44-101 requires issuers to file a one-time notice of intention to be qualified to file a short form prospectus (a qualification notice) at least 10 business days prior to filing its first preliminary short form prospectus under NI 44-101.

With the SEDAR changes now effective, the process for filing the qualification notice and the withdrawal notice under NI 44-101 is as follows:

1. Access the Securities Offering filing category in SEDAR;

2. Choose the newly created filing type "NI 44-101 Notice of Intent";

3. Under this filing type, two folders (subtypes) are displayed:

a. NI 44-101 Notice of Intent to Qualify;

b. NI 44-101 Withdrawal Notice;

4. File the qualification notice under NI 44-101 Notice of Intent to Qualify. This notice should be in substantially the form of Appendix 'A' to NI 44-101;

5. There is no prescribed form of withdrawal notice. It is filed under NI 44-101 Withdrawal Notice.

NI 44-101 Notice of Intent is an auto public filing type in SEDAR.

Attached as Appendix 'A' to this Notice is a list of issuers whose Initial AIFs were accepted for filing after the list of grandfathered issuers was published with CSA Notice 44-302 on December 16, 2005 and prior to December 30, 2005, along with any issuers that were omitted from the list.

Attached as Appendix 'B' to this Notice is a list of issuers who have filed the qualification notice under "Other Filings" during the transition period.

Issuers whose names appear on Appendix A or B of this Notice and issuers whose names were on Appendix 'A' of CSA Notice 44-302 are not required to file a qualification notice again under the newly created filing type NI 44-101 Notice of Intent.

Issuers that identify inaccuracies in the lists are requested to contact CSA staff of their notice regulator as defined in s. 2.8(3) of NI 44-101.

Questions

Please refer your questions to any of the following:

 

 

APPENDIX A

Issuer Name

 

APPENDIX B

Issuer Name