The Canadian Securities Administrators are increasing the annual filing service charges for the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval, effective January 1, 2002.

These increases will be implemented in SEDAR in a code update on January 7, 2002, and cover the costs of implementing and maintaining the System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders, which was launched on October 29.

These increases will apply to all reporting issuers (other than mutual funds) that file disclosure documents through SEDAR).

The CSA has determined that the fairest method to cover the costs of SEDI is to require an increase in SEDAR annual service charges payable by SEDI issuers. There are no service charges payable either by insiders for filing in SEDI or by the public for accessing information filed in SEDI.

The timing and amount of these increases in the annual service charge will vary, depending on the type of SEDI issuer. For example, single and multi-jurisdiction issuers will be required to pay the increased service charges upon the filing of their annual financial statements whereas Short Form Prospectus Issuers will be required to pay part of the increase upon filing their AFS and the remaining amount upon filing their Annual Information Form.

For 2002, the portion of the SEDAR annual filing service charges that relate to SEDI will cover a 14 month period (12 months of 2002 plus a prorated sum for the two months of 2001 that SEDI was operational). Fees for each subsequent year will only cover a 12 month period.