The Investment Counsel Association of Canada (ICAC) announced today that its board of directors has adopted and made public its principles of corporate governance. The association says it regards the proxy vote as an important client asset.

Consequently, the board and its investment and corporate governance committee has circulated these principles to its member firms and urged them to use their votes to press for improvement in the standard of corporate governance in Canada. The principles can be accessed online through the company’s Web site.

“These principles have been drafted after much debate and represent the standards of corporate behaviour that our members expect of the companies they invest in,” said Barbara Lockhart, chair of the investment and corporate governance committee. “Canadian corporate management must understand that the ICAC member firms will not support proposals and activities that are inconsistent with these principles”, she added.

The ICAC has, for some time, strongly supported initiatives to improve corporate governance in Canada. In cases where corporate management does not respond positively to such initiatives, ICAC members believe that the best recourse is to make corporate management aware of their dissatisfaction by voting proxies in accordance with these principles.

The ICAC is the representative association for investment counsel and portfolio management firms across Canada and is the leading voice for investment management in Canada. Collectively, its 70 member firms manage almost $500 billion in assets on behalf of institutional and individual clients.