Another First For TSX -- New Stock Symbol Codes This Fall - Consistency In Symbols Offers Greater Transparency And Clarity To Investors

TSX Group CEO Barbara Stymiest announced today that, effective Fall 2004, Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange will identify stock listings by the type of voting structure each issue offers. The change will reflect only those issues with unusual voting structures. “Investors in Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange issues will soon clearly know if they own ‘Multiple Voting Shares’, ‘Subordinate Voting Shares’ or ‘Non-Voting Shares’ when changes to the stock symbol requirements are implemented. With a renewed focus on investments and the governance of our listed issuers, this is an idea whose time has come.”

Work on this project began earlier this year after discussions between TSX and the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance. The Coalition recommended TSX look at changes it could make to clarify the nature of shares that shareholders owned.

“TSX Group is working cooperatively to make this happen. Over the coming months, we will be communicating the changes to issuers, brokers, traders and the investing public in advance of the October 2004 launch date for Toronto Stock Exchange and November 2004 for TSX Venture Exchange,” said Robert Fabes, Senior Vice-President, Toronto Stock Exchange.

To provide consistency and clarity, symbols with non-standard voting structures will be changed to include a standard two letter suffix indicating voting privileges. For example, non-voting shares with a symbol of "AAP.B" would become "AAP.NV.B"

Final details of the symbol suffix changes will be communicated in advance of the October 2004 changeover date via issuer newsletters, trader’s notes, bulletins and a news release.