Canadian Venture Exchange

In what has been described as the first merger of stock exchanges in the world, the Alberta Stock Exchange and the Vancouver Stock Exchange joined to form the Canadian Venture Exchange (CDNX) on November 26, 1999. CDNX is a new national and specialized exchange for junior and emerging issuers. Its corporate office is in Calgary and the operations office is in Vancouver. The merger is the first step in the realignment of Canadian stock exchanges under an agreement among the ASE, VSE, The Toronto Stock Exchange and The Montreal Exchange.

Fraser Milner’s Calgary office acted for the ASE and CDNX in the merger under the guidance of Maryn Sigurdson, General Counsel of the ASE. David Lefebvre of Fraser Milner led a team of Calgary lawyers comprised of Dorothy Dawe, Tom Mayson, David Robottom, Brian Grayton, Gail Harding, Neil Sankoff, Adam Pekarsky and Melissa Byer. The Calgary team was assisted by Fraser Milner lawyers in Vancouver (Blair Horn and Andrea Wales), in Edmonton (Robert Roth, Colleen Cebuliak and Roger Kuypers) and in Toronto (Heather Zordel).

The VSE was represented by Deborah Armour, General Counsel of the VSE and Neil de Gelder, Q.C., Ian Webb and Barbara Smith of Ladner Downs in Vancouver. Ken Skingle and Craig McDougall of Felesky Flynn in Calgary provided tax advice to the exchanges.