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Home / Our Approach / ESG / Proxy Voting

Proxy Voting

BCI is a long-term investor in the global equity markets. We advocate for improvements in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure, where necessary, to increase overall company performance and shareholder value. We consider informed voting an essential component of our commitment to engagement and the influence pillar of our ESG Strategy, as it fosters good corporate governance and accountability.

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Proxy Voting Guidelines

Our Proxy Voting Guidelines set out our expectations with respect to the governance practices of the companies in which we invest; as well as expectations of how they will address environmental and social risks. Updated every two years, the guidelines describe how we approach these issues from a proxy voting perspective and gives guidance to investee companies on how we are likely to vote the shares we own when such matters are put to a shareholder vote.

View Proxy Voting Guidelines

Raising Expectations: 2023 Proxy Voting Guidelines

Holding Companies Accountable on Climate Change

Building on our industry-leading climate risk disclosure requirements, for companies in high emitting sectors, we may vote against financial statements if they lack sufficient details on climate change risk to the company’s operations and finances and will vote against audit committee members if there is no reference to climate risk impacts in the auditor’s opinion.

Expanding Board Diversity Beyond Gender

We began considering the lack of ethnic and racial diversity in the United States in 2021. We have now expanded this consideration to include Canada. BCI believes that boards which are inclusive of a diversity of perspectives will ultimately produce better decisions. We expect boards to adopt and disclose a formal diversity policy that includes targets and timelines to increase levels of diversity at both the board and senior management level.

Maintaining Strong Corporate Governance

Targeting the chief executive officer (CEO) directly is rare among investors and escalates our voting strategy from exclusively holding the nominating committee accountable. Since a board chair plays a key role in hiring and firing a CEO, the roles must be separated in shareholders’ best interests. We will consistently vote to ensure the separation of CEO and board chair roles.

Protecting Shareholder Rights

BCI has long supported the principle of one share, one vote but multi-class share structures, occurring when some shareholders have unequal voting rights over others, continue to negatively impact shareholders. We will now vote against independent board chairs or lead directors and governance committee chairs at companies with unequal voting rights unless there are mitigating factors such as reasonable sunset clauses.

2023 Proxy Voting Season Highlights

2,571

meetings voted

51

countries voted in

59
%

shareholder proposals supported by BCI

Proxy Voting Record

We disclose our proxy votes ahead of a publicly-traded company’s annual general meeting. Our searchable database below provides an account of our voting, including our rationale for when we vote against management proposal and all shareholder proposals.

 

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Proxy Voting Records

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