Multiple award winner:

• Honourable mention for corporate disclosure, 2015 CPA Canada Awards of Excellence in Corporate Reporting
• Winner of the 2015 Excellence in Governance Award for Best sustainability, ethics and environmental governance program by the Canadian Society of Corporate Secretaries
• Winner of the 2014 New York Stock Exchange leadership award for exemplary CD&A
• Two-time Gavel Award winner for governance and compensation disclosure

Challenge
For several years, Cameco had made a concerted effort to go beyond just complying with the disclosure rules for management proxy circulars. They were trying to do things right, recognizing that standards were evolving in North America and shareholders were becoming more and more active.

Cameco responded with a comprehensive discussion of various items, adopting best practices and including voluntary disclosure. But the company still wasn’t getting the recognition they deserved for their efforts.

Solution
The idea of a plain language approach appealed to Cameco, and they approached us to help them create a more meaningful circular for shareholders and other stakeholders.

We understood the legal requirements, Cameco’s goals, and what shareholders need to know to make important voting decisions. We transformed the circular so it didn’t look or read like a legal document, restructuring it into three main sections that help readers navigate the information more easily. We developed introductions for key sections and incorporated sidenotes, callouts and more tabular information to give more context and keep the copy lighter. We used formulas and other graphics as visual aids to help readers understand how Cameco assesses performance and makes compensation decisions for their executives and directors.

Result
Cameco is a two-time winner of the Governance Gavel Award from the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance (2009 and 2010), and their circular has become a reference for law firms and other public companies.

The new circular is in plain English, meets disclosure requirements, and is friendly and inviting in tone, style and format. We applied this same approach to Cameco’s proxy forms for registered shareholders and participants in their share ownership plan.

We’ve continued to work with Cameco on their proxy materials, as well as their annual reports, quarterly Management’s discussion and analysis (MD&A) and annual information form (AIF).

Our plain language approach has been instrumental in setting a new standard for Cameco and for corporate disclosure in Canada.