Admittedly, this is no easy task. The Hockin Report is the third attempt in recent years at selling the idea. Which combination of carrot and stick can sway those provinces that are still reluctant to hand over to a federal or national organization their regulatory and supervisory powers of securities markets? Instead of focusing on […]

The distember of our times and investors’ belated outrage has turned corporate governance into a growth industry. Along with much hand wringing, disconsolate essays on ethics, host of new rules and regulations have come the banal and the trivial, invariably trotting on the allure of a surging. The essays contained in this monograph were written à […]

“History never repeats itself. Mankind always does.” – Voltaire How did this unparalleled financial crisis come about? How can it be explained in simple terms? How can we learn from it and avoid making the same mistakes in future? The problem – the direct cause of the crisis – can be traced to a series […]

While the U.S. Congress was desperately scrambling to salvage its bailout plan, a panic-inducing chill went through the spine of the financial markets this past Monday, September 29 – as specialists and laymen alike are still struggling to come to terms with the finer points of this ongoing crisis. How exactly did the massive issuance […]

A Working Group of 18 prominent members of the business community issues a set of proposals promoting flexible governance adapted to the needs of Quebec’s small and medium-sized businesses and entrepreneurs. At a time when small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are facing bigger and bigger challenges, their owners and managers need to be able to […]

A group of experts issues a report on corporate governance in the healthcare system and proposes concrete measures for improving the oversight of health and social services institutions in Quebec ? Improved performance within the healthcare system requires the boards of directors of healthcare institutions to have broader powers and clearer responsibilities so they can […]

[Caveat: This brief is submitted to the Competition Review Panel as a personal statement and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Institute or of its board of directors] The strength and size of the latest wave of foreign takeovers of Canadian corporations has spurred a sharp debate about their costs and benefits to […]

[ … ] The main question in most of the studies we survey is: Does disproportional ownership destroy shareholder value? We will argue that, while the literature has uncovered some robust evidence, this question has proven difficult to address empirically. A related issue is whether the widespread use of mechanisms to unbundle cash flow rights […]

Calls to eliminate the current architecture of the securities regulatory apparatus in Canada and replace it with a single, national securities commission have reached fever pitch over the last few weeks. Unsubstantiated claims that “Canada is the laughing stock of the rest of the world” are bandied around as if that were a compelling argument […]

Working Group proposes principles for the governance of Quebec universities. In order for universities to achieve good governance, their Boards of Directors must include a majority of members who are independent of internal stakeholders. Boards must also enjoy autonomy in carrying out their functions – a prerequisite for accountability. They must follow clearly-established reporting requirements, […]

Agenda of Presentation: Preliminary remarks Hedge Funds Private Equity Funds Policy Implications

On May 7, 2007, Alcoa launched a bid to take over Alcan. It is qualified as “hostile” takeover bid because no previous arrangements had been made with the Alcan board of directors in this regard. This event, which follows on the heels of several other takeovers of Canadian businesses by foreign interests in recent months, […]

The opinions expressed here are strictly those of the author and do not reflect a position of the Institute nor of its board of directors. The acquisition of CHUM Ltd by Bell Globemedia has brought the issue of control through superior voting shares back in the limelight. In an early, path-breaking move, the Toronto stock […]

Yvan Allaire has shaped and crafted the strategies of a number of large companies in Québec. At Bombardier for the last five years, he went form advice to action. Today, he leaves his job as Exective Vice President, but leaves behind solid foundations for the future.   To read the full length article, pleaser click […]

The wave of mergers and acquisitions rolls on unabated, the latest statistics putting the number of transactions worldwide at some 34,000 in 1999. Canada has been an active participant in this global phenomenon. In 2000, there were close to 1300 transactions, worth some C$234 billion, in which Canadian companies took part. Canadians were involved in […]

The 4th Conference of Montréal on globalized economies wove together three different but closely related strands of issues and challenges confronting Europe and directly or indirectly a good part of the world. What’s happening now in Europe will have momentous ramifications throughout the world, bringing forth major shifts in economic power and new alignments of […]