RPIA acts a registered Investment Fund Manager for private and public investment funds (the “Fund/s”).
As manager of the Funds, RPIA has the authority to exercise any voting rights that a Fund has in its capacity as a security holder of an issuer. It is the policy of RPIA that these rights are exercised in accordance with the best interests of the unit holders of the Fund determined at the time the vote is cast. However, given the fixed income focus of the Funds it is very rare for a Fund to hold securities that have voting rights.
In voting proxies on behalf of a Fund, RPIA will adhere to its internal conflicts of interest policies and where applicable, such policies will be reviewed by the Fund’s Independent Review Committee (“IRC”). Where a conflict of interest arises between RPIA’s interests and those of the Funds (or their unitholders), RPIA will act in the best interest of the Funds and will at all times place the interest of the Funds above its own. RPIA will document any instance where a conflict of interest could be construed and will take appropriate action to address such conflict, which may include referring the matter to the IRC (in the case of a prospectus-based fund) or seeking external legal counsel to help ensure objectivity and adherence to applicable securities laws and regulations. In certain instances it may be deemed to be in the best interest of a Fund for votes not to be cast on a particular matter.
RPIA may also engage third parties to help advise on proxy voting matters and assist with documentation and recordkeeping.
RPIA will take reasonable steps to vote all applicable proxies on behalf of the Funds. However, there may be circumstances where voting may be impractical. These situations may include, but are not limited to:
- insufficient information available,
- proxy documents not being delivered by the custodian in a timely fashion,
- lack of English proxy materials,
- cost of voting outweighs potential benefit to the Fund, and
In the case of prospectus-based Funds which are reporting issuers, RPIA will also comply with the requirements set out in Part 10 of NI 81-106 as it pertains to proxy voting.