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Annual Report
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For the first time since its inception more than 40 years ago, Société générale de financement du Québec is starting its Annual Report with a message from its Chairman.
This change reflects the adoption by Québec’s Assemblée nationale of the in December 2006. This Act strengthens the role of the Board of Directors and modernizes its functioning, notably its rules of disclosure.
I have been a member of the Board since 2004, and my appointment as Chairman is the direct result of this Act, which separates the position of Chairman from that of President and General Manager to ensure the independence of these two roles.
With respect to its governance, SGF began in 2007 put in place all the mechanisms and procedures specified in the Act: a new code of ethics for the directors and employees of SGF and its wholly owned subsidiaries, a succession planning program for the officers appointed by SGF, a human resources policy for SGF and its wholly owned subsidiaries, measures to assess SGF’s efficiency and performance, including benchmarking against similar companies, evaluation of the integrity of internal controls, information disclosure controls and information systems, a financial disclosure policy and a resource optimization plan.
In addition, the three required committees – the Audit Committee, the Governance and Ethics Committee and the Human Resources Committee – have been formed and are fully operational.
SGF’s Board of Directors and senior management team fully endorse the objectives of the Act, which ensures better protection of the public interest, contributes to SGF’s sound functioning and preserves its complete independence.
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During the year, the Board of Directors ensured compliance with SGF’s strategic orientations, namely to carry out structuring projects with partners from outside Québec, to facilitate the consolidation and expansion in Québec of companies in specific sectors and to accelerate the growth of successful Québec companies. Since 2004, these strategic orientations have been the foundation for the restructuring of SGF, which has repositioned itself to focus on profitable economic development.
SGF has now fully assumed its mission of contributing to economic development by creating partnerships with companies, while maintaining its profitability. It invests wealth-creating development capital in Québec’s economy and maintains relationships with private and institutional investors in Québec, the rest of Canada, the United States and other parts of the world. Moreover, its ties with the industrial and financial sectors give it an influential voice on strategic matters, such as the issues facing the forest industry in 2007, and it plays an important role as an adviser to public decision makers.
In conclusion, I wish to commend SGF’s senior management and employees for their expertise and my colleagues on the Board of Directors for their dedication.
Hon. Jean Bazin, Q.C.
Chairman of the Board
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