The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec’s new chairman and CEO, Henri-Paul Rousseau, has tabled an action plan designed to achieve greater transparency and an improved performance for the organization and its subsidiaries.

The action plan includes a strategic moratorium so that in the months to come the CDP can do a full appraisal of its operations while continuing to manage the group’s assets proactively. The plan aims to boost transparency by revising corporate governance rules and designing a communication program to provide a better understanding of the expectations of the main stakeholders of the Caisse and its subsidiaries.

These initiatives will be carried out over several years and are designed to strengthen all management and control processes “before”, “during” and “after” decisions pertaining to investment, the organization’s first mission.

To perform the appraisal, a task force of in-house specialists and outside consultants will review all the operations of CDP and its subsidiaries. The task force will be led by Rousseau, who will draw on the opinions of CDP’s management team and also those of a committee of external, independent experts. The results of the appraisal will be communicated to the board. This work will be completed by about mid-February 2003.

Rousseau also calls for a revision of the corporate governance rules, which should lead to the board’s submission in 2003 of a series of recommendations to the Québec government regarding an update of the Act respecting the CDP. The board will also be asked to review the internal corporate governance rules for the subsidiaries of the Caisse and its decision-making bodies.

Finally, Caisse senior managers will meet by the end of 2002 with all the institution’s depositors and partners to gain a full understanding of their expectations and to include their perceptions in the corporate appraisal process. A series of meetings with CDP employees and managers is also in progress.

During the corporate appraisal, CDP will implement: a hiring freeze; a cost-cutting program to reduce administrative expenses; a review of clearly problematic investments and transactions; and, daily, rigorous monitoring of all opportunities likely to create value over the short and medium terms.