Question of the week: What is SEDAR?

Submitted by nsscadmin on Wed, 11/15/2017 - 10:00

SEDAR stands for System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval. You can see why we needed an acronym. Found online at www.sedar.com, SEDAR is administered by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and operated by the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC). SEDAR is the electronic system used by public companies and investment funds to officially file documents. This fulfills three objectives:

1. It facilitates electronic filings of securities information as required by the securities regulatory authorities in Canada.

2. Allows for public dissemination of securities information filed by public companies and investment funds.

3. Provides electronic communication between electronic filers, agents and Canadian securities regulatory authorities.

By logging on to SEDAR anyone can search for and look at offering documents and continuous disclosure documents such as prospectuses,, financial statements, management discussion and analysis and material change reports. This makes SEDAR a must for any investor looking to invest in a public company.

SEDAR also has a lengthy list of profiles for all public issuers in Canada divided among companies and investment fund groups. This makes it easy to find basic info on a company or fund, including things like their principal regulator, stock exchange they are listed on, their stock symbol, transfer agent and contact information.

**On July 25, 2023 SEDAR was replaced by SEDAR+. To learn more about the initial launch of SEDAR+ please see our SEDAR+ blog post.**

Failure to file annual financial statements.
Failure to file interim financial statements.
Failure to file an annual or interim management’s discussion and analysis (MD&A) or an annual or interim management report of fund performance (MRFP).
Failure to file an Annual Information Form (AIF).
Failure to file a certification of annual or interim filings required by Multilateral Instrument 52-109 Certification of Disclosure in Issuers’ Annual and Interim Filings (MI 52-109).
Failure to file required proxy materials or a required information circular.
Failure to file an issuer profile supplement on the System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders (SEDI).
Failure to file a material change report.
Failure to provide a written update after filing a confidential report of a material change.
Failure to file a business acquisition report.
Failure to file annual oil and gas disclosure prescribed by National Instrument 51-101 Standards of Disclosure of Oil and Gas Activities (NI 51-101) or technical reports for a mineral project required under NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101).
Failure to file a mandatory news release.
Failure to file corporate governance disclosure as required by national Instrument 58-101 Disclosure of Corporate Governance Practices (NI 58-101).
Failure to file audit committee disclosure as required by Multilateral Instrument 52-110 Audit Committees (MI 52-110) or BC Instrument 52-509 Audit Committees.
Failure to include disclosure in an issuer’s MD&A relating to disclosure controls and procedures and their direct effectiveness that is referred to in a certificate filed under MI 52-109.
Financial statements of the reporting issuer, or the auditors’ report accompanying the financial statements, do not comply with the requirements of NI 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations (NI 51-102), National Instrument 81-106 Investment Fund Continuous Disclosure (NI 81-106) or National Instrument 52-107 Acceptable Accounting Principles, Auditing Standards and Reporting Currency (NI 52-107).
The reporting issuer has acknowledged that its financial statements, or the auditors’ report accompanying the financial statements, may no longer be relied upon.
The reporting issuer’s AIF, MD&A, MRFP, information circular, or business acquisition reports do not contain information for each of the content items required by NI 51-102 or NI 81-106.
The reporting issuer’s technical disclosure or other reports do not comply with the disclosure requirements of NI 43-101 or 51-101.
Failure to pay a fee required by the Act or the regulations.
Failure to comply with any other requirement related to continuous disclosure.