2023–2024 Trustee Annual Report on the English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation Trust

English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation Trust

May 31, 2024

Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks
Attention: Julie Schroeder, Director Technical Assessment & Standards Development Branch 
Environmental Sciences and Standards Division
40 St. Clair Ave West 7^th Floor 
Toronto Ontario M4V 1M2

Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks
Attention: Steven Carrasco, Assistant Deputy Minister Drinking Water and Environmental Compliance Division
135 St. Clair Ave W 8^th Floor 
Toronto Ontario M4V 1P5

Grassy Narrows First Nation Chief and Council 
General Delivery
Grassy Narrows Ontario P0X 1B0

Wabaseemoong Independent Nations Chief and Council 
General Delivery
Whitedog Ontario P0X 1P0

Eagle Lake First Nation Chief and Council 
PO Box 1001
Migisi Sahgaigan Ontario P0V 3H0

Wabauskang First Nation Chief and Council
PO Box 339
Ear Falls Ontario P0V 1T0

Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation Chief and Council
70 Main Street
RR 1 Site 115
PO Box 300
Dryden Ontario P8N 2Y4

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are pleased to provide our Annual Report for the period April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024 and enclose the following in English and French:

• Account Summary Report outlining the financial affairs of the Trust prepared by BMO Trust Company
• Report of Disbursement of Trust Property prepared by BMO Trust Company
• Audited Financial Statements prepared by MNP LLP

Please contact me should you have any questions.

Steve Partridge
Vice-President Indigenous Trust Services — Eastern Canada
BMO Trust Company
519-667-1154
Toll-free: 1-844-204-0515
steve.partridge@bmo.com

Account Summary Report: 865-31550 (English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation)

Reporting Period: April 1, 2023 to March 31, 4

Account summary

Account activity

Steve Partridge
VP Indigenous Trust Services
519-667-1154
steve.partridge@bmo.com

Janet McRae
Trust Officer Indigenous Trust
579-667-0098
janet.mcrae@bmo.com
 www.bmo.com

Account Holdings Report: 865-31550 (English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation)

Reporting Period: April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024

Capital preservation

Fixed Income — Canadian

Miscellaneous

Account Transactions Report: 865-31550 (English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation)

Reporting Period: April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024

Inflows

Outflows

Security transactions

Glossary

Refer to statement guide for a more comprehensive glossary of key terms.

Annualized Returns represent the compounded average performance returns of your Portfolio or Account, per year, for the period of time being reviewed. However, returns for time periods under 1 year are not compounded. This information allows you to easily compare returns across different investments or accounts, over different periods of time. For example, while a 3-year annualized return of 5% means that an investment effectively provided an average return of 5% a year, it does not provide insight into how widely returns fluctuated from year to year.

Asset Class is a grouping of securities that exhibit similar characteristics and attributes (such as risk levels, geography or industry) and often behave similarly in the marketplace. Your statement presents two broad asset classes: Capital Preservation and Capital Appreciation. Each asset class is further divided into sub-asset classes, in order to help you understand the diversification of your investment holdings.

BPICI refers to BMO Private Investment Counsel Inc.

Calendar Year Returns represent the performance of your Portfolio or Account over an individual calendar year (January 1 to December 31), stated as the percentage gained or lost per dollar invested on January 1.

Cost of a security held in your Account typically represents the book value which is the total amount you paid to purchase the security, including any transaction charges related to the purchase, and adjusted for reinvested distributions, returns of capital and corporate reorganizations. In certain circumstances, cost may be represented as a market value or a blend of book value and market value.

Investment Value Added is the difference between what you deposited in your Account or Portfolio (referred to as "Cumulative Net Invested" over time, meaning contributions less disbursements and withdrawals) and your Account or Portfolio’s ending investment value for the period.

Miscellaneous Assets typically represent personal assets such as holding companies, jewellery and real estate. These assets are not being managed by BPICI, and they are not investable via standard investment management channels. These assets are being reported on your statement in order to present you a more holistic view of your assets. Miscellaneous Assets are typically excluded from any performance return information presented in your statement.

Money-Weighted Returns calculations take into account the timing and size of Contributions, Disbursements and Withdrawals into or out of your Portfolio or Account. Money-Weighted Returns (MWR) represent your personal rates of return on your investments and are specific to you. As opposed to Time-Weighted Returns, Money-Weighted Returns cannot be used to objectively measure the performance of your investment manager relative to capital markets returns or to another investment manager.

Nominee Name as referenced in the Account Holdings Report means that unless otherwise indicated in this statement, all of your assets are held in "Nominee name" by a BMO custodian. As our client, you are the owner of the investment but in order for BPICI to facilitate trading on your behalf, the investment is registered in 'Nominee Name'. For your mutual fund holdings the 'Nominee' is BMO Trust Company, and for all other securities it is BMO Nesbitt Burns.

Performance Analysis is a section of your statement (if applicable to your Account or Portfolio) that presents the performance of your investments in percentage terms (i.e. the gains and losses of each investment over a specified period of time, including realized and unrealized capital gains and losses, plus income from investments). There are two Return Calculation methods used by BPICI: Time-Weighted and Money-Weighted.

Portfolio means all of the accounts covered by this statement. The Portfolio Summary Report, which is presented at the beginning of your statement, if applicable, provides an aggregated view of your accounts, and is followed by individual Account Summary Reports, for each Account in your Portfolio.

Since <date> refers to the date on which we started certain calculations provided in your statement. In the Value Over Time sections of your Summary Reports, the 'Since <date>' refers to the date on which you opened your account, whereas for a Portfolio, it refers to the earliest account open date of all the accounts included in the Portfolio. In the Performance Analysis section the 'Since <date>' refers to the start date of a particular performance return calculation.

Time-Weighted Returns calculations do not reflect the impact of Contributions, Disbursements and Withdrawals into or out of your Portfolio or Account. As such, as opposed to Money–Weighted Returns, Time-Weighted Returns (TWR) can be used to objectively measure the performance of your investment manager relative to capital markets returns or to another investment manager.

English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation Trust — Transactions

English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation Trust financial statements

Management responsibility

March 31, 2024

To the Trustee of the English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation Trust

Trust management is responsible for the preparation and presentation of the accompanying financial statements, including responsibility for significant accounting judgments and estimates in accordance with Canadian accounting standards for not-for- profit organizations. This responsibility includes selecting appropriate accounting principles and methods, and making decisions affecting the measurement of transactions in which objective judgment is required.

In discharging its responsibilities for the integrity and fairness of the financial statements, trust management designs and maintains the necessary accounting systems and related internal controls to provide reasonable assurance that transactions are authorized, assets are safeguarded and financial records are properly maintained to provide reliable information for the preparation of financial statements.

The Trustee is responsible for overseeing management in the performance of its financial reporting responsibilities. The Trustee fulfils these responsibilities by reviewing the financial information prepared by management and discussing relevant matters with trust management and external auditors. The Trustee is also responsible for recommending the appointment of the Trust's external auditors.

MNP LLP is appointed by the Trustee to audit the financial statements and report directly to them; their report follows. The external auditors have full and free access to, and meet periodically and separately with, both the Trustee and management to discuss their audit findings.

May 30, 2024

Signed

Janet McRae
Trustee

English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation Trust financial statements

Independent auditor’s report— MNP

To the Trustee of the English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation Trust

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of the English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation Trust [the "Trust"], which comprise the statement of financial position as at March 31, 2024, and the statement of revenue and expenses and changes in net assets and statement of cash flows for the year then ended, and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies.

In our opinion, the accompanying financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Trust as at March 31, 2023, and its results of operations and its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with Canadian accounting standards for not-for-profit organizations.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with Canadian generally accepted auditing standards. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the Trust in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in Canada, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Other matter

The financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2023 were audited by another auditor who expressed an unmodified opinion on those statements on May 19, 2023.

Responsibilities of management and those charged with governance for the financial statements

Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with Canadian accounting standards for not-for-profit organizations, and for such internal control as management determines is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, management is responsible for assessing the Trust’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless management either intends to liquidate the Trust or to cease operations, or has no realistic alternative but to do so.

Those charged with governance are responsible for overseeing the Trust’s financial reporting process.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with Canadian generally accepted auditing standards will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

As part of an audit in accordance with Canadian generally accepted auditing standards, we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional skepticism throughout the audit. We also:

• Identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.
• Obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the Trust’s internal control.
• Evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made by management.
• Conclude on the appropriateness of management’s use of the going concern basis of accounting and, based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that may cast significant doubt on the Trust’s ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor’s report to the related disclosures in the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor’s report. However, future events or conditions may cause the Trust to cease to continue as a going concern.
• Evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.

We communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that we identify during our audit.

Signed

Waterloo, Ontario
May 30, 2024

MNP LLP
Chartered Professional Accountants
Licensed Public Accountants
Toronto, Canada

Statement of financial position

As at March 31, 2024

Approved on behalf of the Trustee
Janet McRae

Statement of cash flows

Year ended March 31, 2024

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these financial statements

Notes to financial statements

For the year ended March 31, 2024

1. Description and purpose of the trust

The English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation Trust (the "Trust") is a trust established pursuant to the English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation Funding Act, 2017, which came into force on December 14, 2017. The Trust was settled by the Province of Ontario by the payment of an initial contribution of $10 and a further contribution of $85,000,000 on March 23, 2018. The Trust is a charitable purpose trust under the laws of Ontario and is a tax exempt organization under paragraph 149(1)(I) of the Income Tax Act.

The Trust was established to provide funding for the remediation of contaminants in the English and Wabigoon Rivers, including:

1. Preventing and reducing the risk of a discharge of contaminants
2. Reducing the presence, concentration or bio-availability of contaminants, including their presence and concentration in fish
3. Post-remediation monitoring and other remediation activities that may be specified by the Minister
4. Costs or reimbursement of expenses related to activities of the English and Wabigoon Rivers Remediation Panel [the "Panel"] and approved persons from other Indigenous communities, including their remuneration
5. Administration of the Trust, including the remuneration of the Trustee
6. Supporting community engagement in connection with the work of the Panel
7. Any additional activities or matters that are identified as eligible for funding

2. Significant accounting policies

These financial statements are the representations of the Trust's management, prepared in accordance with Part III of the prepared in accordance with Part III of the CPA Canada Handbook — Accounting, "Accounting Standards for Not-for-Profit Organizations."

Financial instruments

The Trust recognizes financial instruments when the Trust becomes party to the contractual provisions of the financial instrument. All financial instruments are initially recorded at their fair value.

The Trust subsequently measures investments at fair value. Fair value is determined by published price quotations. Transactions to purchase or sell these items are recorded on the trade date.

Transaction costs directly attributable to the origination, acquisition, issuance or assumption of financial instruments subsequently measured at fair value are immediately recognized in expenses for the year. Conversely, transaction costs are added to the carrying amount for those financial instruments subsequently measured at amortized cost or cost.

All cash and investments are subsequently valued at fair value. Accrued investment income is subsequently valued at amortized cost.

Investments

Investments are portfolio investments recorded at fair value for those with prices quoted in an active market. They have been classified as long-term assets in concurrence with the nature of the investment.

Disbursements

Disbursements are recorded as expense transactions when approved by the Panel and disbursed from the Trust.

Revenue recognition

The Trust follows the deferral method of accounting for contributions. Externally restricted contributions are recognized as revenue in the year in which the related expenses are incurred. Unrestricted contributions are recognized as revenue when received or receivable if the amount to be received can be reasonably estimated and collection is reasonably assured. Endowment contributions are recognized as direct increases in net assets.

Investment income is recognized as revenue when earned.

Measurement uncertainty (use of estimates)

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with Canadian accounting standards for not-for-profit organizations requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Significant items subject to such estimates and assumptions include the valuation of investments which derive fair values from external sources. Actual results may vary from such estimates.

3. Investments

The allocation of investments at fair market value at March 31 was as follows:

As at March 31, 2024, short-term notes and paper consists of treasury bills and deposit notes maturing between May 23, 2024 and August 14, 2024. Canadian corporate bonds bear interest between 0.95% and 5.50% and mature between June 15, 2024 and May 10, 2032.

As at March 31, 2023, short-term notes and paper consists of treasury bills and deposit notes maturing between May 31, 2023 and August 31, 2023. Canadian corporate bonds bear interest between 0.95% and 5.38% and mature between January 22, 2024 and May 10, 2032.

4. Financial instruments

The Trust, as part of its operations, carries a number of financial instruments. It is management's opinion that the Trust is not exposed to significant interest, currency, credit, liquidity or other price risks arising from these financial instruments except as otherwise disclosed. The Trust is permitted to invest in treasury bills issued by the Government of Canada or Government of Ontario at terms of less than five years and interest-bearing accounts and short-term certificates of chartered banks, trust companies, credit unions or caisse populaire.

Credit risk

Credit risk is the risk of financial loss because a counter party to a financial instrument fails to discharge its contractual obligations. The Trust is exposed to credit risk through its investment portfolio. The portfolio is diversified with investment grade products to mitigate this risk.

Interest rate risk

The Trust is exposed to interest rate risk with respect to its investments in fixed income investments due to the fair value fluctuating as a result in changes in market interest rates. The duration of fixed income holdings is limited in order to mitigate the exposure to changes in interest rates.

5. Comparative figures

Certain comparative figures have been reclassified to conform with the current year presentation.