Canada - Review of IFRS transition disclosures

Canada's Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has issued its IFRS Transition Disclosure Review (Staff Notice 52-718). The purpose of this Notice is to summarize the results of the review of 106 reporting issuers and to provide additional guidance for issuers in their Management Discussion and Analysis filings in anticipation of their changeover from Canadian GAAP to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on January 1, 2011. The review found, among other things:

• 40% of issuers made no mention of an IFRS changeover plan in their disclosure;
• 60% of issuers discussed a changeover plan, with only half providing disclosure beyond a generic reference to the transition;
• Only half of the issuers that discussed their IFRS transition in their 2008 disclosures also provided investors with quarterly progress updates in 2009 interim disclosure documents.