Other activist organizations have also weighed in. The Shareholder Association of Research and Education (SHARE) has urged Canadian securities regulators to mandate pay ratio disclosures. 128 In addition, Le Mouvement d’éducation et de défense des actionnaires (MÉDAC) has in recent years repeatedly called for Canada’s big six banks 129 to voluntarily disclose pay ratios (see “Canadian Big Banks’ Diverging Approaches to Voluntary Pay Ratio Disclosure,” below). That said, the majority of large Canadian shareholders have not been vocal in their support for pay ratio disclosure, and the proxy voting guidelines of several major shareholders (including Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation) do not make any references to pay ratio disclosure. There is no current evidence that Canadian regulators are considering introducing mandatory pay ratio disclosures in any sector. Without clear regulatory guidance or widespread sustained investor pressure, we do not expect voluntary disclosure to become more prevalent among issuers, especially in North America where priority is being placed on burden reduction for public issuers and, in some jurisdictions, modernizing and improving the competitiveness of the capital markets. Further background and details about pay ratio disclosure, including in the United States and the United Kingdom, is available in Davies Governance Insights 2018 . 130
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Governance Insights 2020
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