News Release

Toronto - The Canadian Securities Administrators (“CSA”) issued a notice to the Canadian market to seek feedback on a new business reporting tool called XBRL. CSA Notice 52-314, Securities Regulators Want Your Feedback on XBRL, provides information on XBRL, and links to an on-line survey to gather comments from the market about their level of awareness of XBRL and what the CSA’s role should be in respect of XBRL.

“The CSA is committed to improving how information is collected and provided to investors, ” says Jean St-Gelais, Chair of the CSA and President & Chief Executive Officer of the Autorité des marchés financiers (Québec). “This includes finding ways to use technology that could make it easier and more efficient for investors to receive, find, compare and analyze financial information.” 

XBRL is a relatively new business reporting language that is emerging as an international standard for communicating business and financial data.  The basic concept of XBRL is that it attaches standardized electronic “tags” to elements of information and these tags provide information about what the item represents.The notice provides a brief overview of XBRL, the benefits and costs associated with it, and current trends and developmentsaround the world.

“There have been a number of significant developments with XBRL around the world, and we are interested in understanding the level of awareness of XBRL in the Canadian marketplace,” said Jean St-Gelais.

To ensure that the survey reaches market participants, the CSA will email a copy of the Notice and survey to all public companies across Canada. 

CSA Notice 52-314 Securities Regulators Want Your Feedback on XBRL, and the accompanying survey is available on several CSA members’ websites.

The CSA is the council of the securities regulators of Canada’s provinces and territories whose objectives are to improve, coordinate, and harmonize regulation of Canadian capital markets.

For more information:

Laurie Gillett
Ontario Securities Commission
416-595-8913

Andrew Poon
British Columbia Securities Commission
604-899-6880

Tamera Van Brunt
Alberta Securities Commission
403-297-2664

Ainsley Cunningham
Manitoba Securities Commission
204-945-4733

Frédéric Alberro
Autorité des marchés financiers
514-940-2176