Insurance Companies Act

Marginal note:Notice of meeting

• 143 (1) Notice of the time and place of a meeting of a company’s shareholders or policyholders shall be sent within the prescribed period to

  • (a) each shareholder entitled to vote at the meeting;

  • (b) each policyholder who is determined under subsection (1.4) or (1.6) to be entitled to notice if no business referred to in subparagraphs (c)(i) to (iii) is to be dealt with;

  • (c) each policyholder entitled to vote at the meeting if any of the following business is to be dealt with:

    • (i) authorizing the company to apply to the Minister for approval of a mutualization proposal or amalgamation agreement,

    • (ii) confirming a by-law changing the rights of policyholders to vote at meetings or the province in which the head office of the company is situated, or

    • (iii) approving an agreement setting out the terms and means of effecting the transfer of all or substantially all of the company’s policies or the reinsurance of all or substantially all of the company’s policies;

  • (d) each director;

  • (e) the auditor of the company;

  • (f) the actuary of the company; and

  • (g) the Superintendent.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (1.001) In the case of a company that is not a distributing company and does not have any policyholders entitled to vote, notice may be sent within any shorter period specified in its by-laws.

• Marginal note:Number of eligible votes

  (1.01) A converted company in respect of which subsection 407(4) applies or a company to which subsection 407(5) applies shall set out in the notice of a meeting the number of eligible votes, as defined under subsection 164.08(1), that may be cast at the meeting as of the record date for determining the shareholders or policyholders entitled to receive the notice of meeting or, if there are to be separate votes of shareholders or policyholders at the meeting, the number of eligible votes, as defined in that subsection, in respect of each separate vote to be held at the meeting.

• Marginal note:Waiver of notice

  (1.1) A company is not required under subsection (1) to send to a person notice of a meeting if the person waives notice of the meeting. That waiver may be in any manner.

• Marginal note:Attendance constitutes waiver

  (1.2) A person who attends a meeting of shareholders or policyholders is deemed to have waived notice of the meeting, except where the person attends the meeting for the express purpose of objecting to the transaction of any business on the grounds that the meeting is not lawfully called.

• Marginal note:Practices of policyholder notification

  (1.3) A company shall adopt and follow either of the two practices set out in subsections (1.4) and (1.5) for the notification of policyholders under paragraph (1)(b).

• Marginal note:First practice

  (1.4) One practice requires the company to send the notice to each policyholder entitled to vote at the meeting. If that practice is adopted, each of those policyholders is entitled to notice under paragraph (1)(b).

• Marginal note:Second practice

  (1.5) The other practice requires the company, at the time of the application for or issuance of a policy that gives the policyholder the right to vote at meetings of the shareholders and policyholders of the company, and after that time at least once every three years,

  • (a) to advise the policyholder of the policyholder’s right to attend and to vote in person or by proxy at those meetings; and

  • (b) to provide the policyholder with a form on which the policyholder may indicate whether the policyholder wants to receive notices of those meetings.

• Marginal note:Notice under second practice

  (1.6) If a company chooses the practice under subsection (1.5), each policyholder entitled to vote at a meeting is entitled to notice under paragraph (1)(b) if, within three years before the record date fixed under subparagraph 142(1)(d)(i) or determined under paragraph 142(3)(a), they complete and return to the company the form referred to in paragraph (1.5)(b) indicating that they want to receive notice or they indicate to the satisfaction of the company that they want to receive notice.

• Marginal note:Exemption

  (2) The Minister may exempt a company from the application of paragraph (1)(c) with respect to business consisting of the approval of an amalgamation agreement, having regard to the size of the company and of the companies or bodies corporate with which it proposes to amalgamate.

• Marginal note:Publication in newspaper

  (3) In addition to the notice required under subsection (1),

  • (a) where any class of shares of a company is publicly traded on a recognized stock exchange in Canada, notice of the time and place of the meeting of shareholders shall be published once a week for at least four consecutive weeks before the date of the meeting in a newspaper in the place where the head office of the company is situated and in each place in Canada where the company has a transfer agent or where a transfer of the company’s shares may be recorded; or

  • (b) notice of the time and place of the meeting of policyholders of the company and, where a company follows the practice under subsection (1.5), information on the means by which any policyholder can receive the notice required under subsection (1), shall be published once a week for at least four consecutive weeks before the date of the meeting in a newspaper in the place where the head office of the company is situated and in each region of Canada in which more than one per cent of the total number of policyholders entitled to vote at the meeting reside.

• Marginal note:Notice not required — shareholders

  (4) Notice of a meeting is not required to be sent to shareholders who are not registered on the records of the company or the company’s transfer agent on the record date fixed under subparagraph 142(1)(c)(i) or determined under paragraph 142(2)(a).

• Marginal note:Notice not required — policyholders

  (5) Notice of a meeting at which business referred to in paragraph (1)(c) is to be dealt with is not required to be sent to policyholders who become policyholders after the record date fixed under subparagraph 142(1)(d)(i) or determined under paragraph 142(3)(a).

• Marginal note:Effect of default

  (6) Failure to receive a notice of a meeting of shareholders or policyholders does not deprive a shareholder or policyholder of the right to vote at the meeting.