For U.S. readers
The Canadian vocabulary, explained once.
Most of the Canadian discount that comes from unfamiliarity can be removed with a page of definitions. Here are the terms our briefs use, grouped by where you will meet them. Each is explained the way a colleague would explain it across a desk, not the way a regulator would.
Exchanges and listings
- TSX
- The Toronto Stock Exchange, Canada’s main market for established companies. Tickers are written TSX: ABC.
- TSX Venture (TSXV)
- The junior exchange for exploration and early-stage companies. Looser listing standards, far more financings, far more dilution. Tickers are written TSXV: ABC.
- CSE
- The Canadian Securities Exchange, a smaller venue for early-stage issuers. Treat disclosure with extra care.
- Cross-listing
- A Canadian company that also lists on the NYSE, Nasdaq or NYSE American. These shares trade in U.S. dollars and settle like any U.S. stock; the company usually files with the SEC as well.
- OTC / F-shares
- U.S. over-the-counter quotations for shares whose home market is Canada. Symbols often end in “F” (foreign ordinary). Most U.S. brokers can quote them; liquidity is thinner and limit orders are the norm.
- Interlisted
- The Canadian word for cross-listed.
- Class A / Class B / subordinate voting
- Many Canadian companies have two share classes with different votes. The ticker suffix (for example TECK.B) tells you which one you are buying.
Filings and disclosure
- SEDAR+
- The Canadian filing system, the equivalent of EDGAR. Every reporting issuer’s financial statements, management discussion, annual information form, technical reports and news releases live here.
- EDGAR 40-F / 6-K / 20-F
- How cross-listed Canadian companies file with the SEC. The 40-F wraps the Canadian annual filings; 6-Ks carry quarterly results and news; some companies file full 10-K/10-Q reports instead.
- MD&A
- Management’s Discussion and Analysis: the narrative that accompanies each set of financial statements. For a researcher it is the most useful document a company publishes, and the one least written to persuade.
- AIF
- The Annual Information Form: a yearly description of the business, its risks, its properties and its people. Canada’s nearest equivalent to the business and risk-factor sections of a 10-K.
- Early-warning report
- Required when a holder crosses 10% of a class of shares (and at each 2% step after). Canada’s version of a 13D.
- SEDI
- The System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders. Officer, director and major-holder trades, searchable and free.
- NI 43-101
- The Canadian standard for disclosing mineral resources and reserves. Every public mineral estimate must be signed by a qualified person and backed by a technical report.
- Measured / indicated / inferred
- The three confidence levels for a mineral resource under NI 43-101. Inferred is the least certain and cannot support an economic study on its own. None of them is a reserve.
- Reserve
- The part of a resource shown to be economically mineable by a feasibility-level study. Proven and probable reserves are the only numbers that belong in a cash-flow model.
- PEA / PFS / FS
- Preliminary economic assessment, pre-feasibility study, feasibility study: the three stages of a mine’s engineering, in increasing rigor and cost. A PEA may use inferred resources; a feasibility study may not.
- NI 51-101
- The Canadian standard for oil and gas reserves disclosure, evaluated by an independent reserves evaluator.
Financing and capital structure
- Private placement
- A share sale to selected investors rather than the public, usually at a discount to market and often with a warrant attached. The standard way Canadian juniors raise money.
- Bought deal
- An underwritten financing in which the banks buy the whole offering and resell it, typically announced after the close and priced below the last trade.
- Warrant
- The right to buy a share at a fixed price for a fixed period, commonly attached to placement units. Count them when you count the shares.
- Flow-through shares
- A Canadian tax structure: the company renounces its exploration deductions to the investor, who pays a premium for the shares. Good for the company’s treasury; dilutive for everyone else.
- CMETC
- The Critical Mineral Exploration Tax Credit, a federal credit for flow-through investors in listed critical-mineral exploration.
- Fully diluted
- Shares outstanding plus everything that can become shares: warrants, options, convertibles. The denominator a value reader should use.
- NCIB
- Normal-course issuer bid: a stock-exchange-approved buyback program, Canada’s name for a repurchase authorization.
- Streaming / royalty
- A financier pays a mine up front for the right to buy a share of future metal at a fixed low price (a stream) or to receive a percentage of revenue (a royalty). Exposure to the ounce without the shovel.
Money, tax and mechanics
- C$ / CAD and US$ / USD
- Canadian issuers report in either currency. Every figure on this site states which; a Canadian company reporting in U.S. dollars is common in mining and energy.
- Withholding tax
- Canada withholds tax on dividends paid to non-residents: 25% by statute, 15% for U.S. residents under the treaty when the right declaration is on file, and generally none on dividends paid into a U.S. IRA.
- NR301
- The Canada Revenue Agency declaration a U.S. resident gives a Canadian payer to claim the treaty rate. Not the same as a W-8BEN, which goes the other way.
- Foreign tax credit
- The U.S. mechanism that lets a taxpayer offset Canadian withholding against U.S. tax owed on the same dividend, within limits. General information only.
- PFIC
- Passive foreign investment company: a U.S. tax classification that catches some Canadian trusts and funds, with unfavourable results for U.S. holders. Operating companies are usually not PFICs; check the company’s own statement.
- Settlement
- Canadian and U.S. equities both settle one business day after the trade (T+1). Canadian market holidays differ from U.S. ones.
Commodities and sectors
- WCS / WTI differential
- Western Canadian Select, the heavy-crude benchmark, trades at a discount to West Texas Intermediate that reflects quality and transport. It is a line in every Canadian oil producer’s realized price.
- AECO
- The Alberta natural-gas benchmark, usually priced below Henry Hub. Export capacity is what narrows the gap.
- Term vs spot (uranium)
- Most uranium is sold under multi-year contracts at prices set by formula; the spot price in the headlines applies to a thin market and reaches a producer’s revenue line slowly.
- Softwood lumber duties
- U.S. anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Canadian lumber, recalculated annually. Producers post cash deposits that sit with the U.S. Treasury until the disputes end.
- Potash
- A potassium fertilizer mined mainly in Saskatchewan; most U.S. supply is Canadian, and export prices are set in contracts with large buyers abroad.
- Critical minerals
- Minerals on the U.S. or Canadian government lists as essential and supply-constrained. The label brings policy attention; it does not change a project’s economics by itself.
General information for readers. Tax and brokerage treatment depend on your circumstances; confirm anything that matters with your broker and a qualified professional. Missing a term? Tell the desk.