(February 6 – 10:00 ET) – Ethical Funds Inc. has become the first mutual fund company in Canada to provide public access to its proxy voting decisions.

Ethical Funds has voted the shares held on behalf of unitholders on a wide range of corporate governance, social, and environmental proxy issues and shareholder resolutions. Now, investors will be able to see how Ethical Funds has voted by visiting the company’s web site ( www.ethicalfunds.com). The firm also lists its proxy voting guidelines on the site.

The firm says that over the past two years socially responsible mutual funds in the U.S. have begun to report their proxy voting activity online. Canadian funds haven’t yet followed suit. Robert Walker, vice president, SRI Policy and Research at Ethical Funds says the firm is making itself more transparent and accountable to our unitholders, and says it hopes that other funds follow its lead.

“Many mutual fund investors don’t even realize that by holding common stock, mutual funds have an opportunity to vote on corporate policies each year at the annual general meeting,” said Walker. “We believe that through proxy voting investors can seize their rights as stockholders and take responsibility for the downstream impacts of their investment activity.”

Ethical Funds plans to disclose how it will vote proxies about two weeks prior to each company’s annual general meeting. The Web database of meetings and voting information is maintained by The Proxy Monitor, a leading provider of proxy voting analysis, voting agency and proxy reporting services for institutional investors.
-IE Staff