OFA PLANNING GREEN BOND ISSUE

Gadi Mayman, the CEO of the Ontario Financing Authority confirmed to Bloomberg that Ontario is planning on an initial summer 2014 green bond issue to be in the order of C$500 million. This would be the first provincial green bond issue and is expected to broaden the base of global investors in Ontario’s bonds. Anticipation of the Ontario issue has sparked a significant amount of interest on Bay Street, and the past few months have seen two significant green bond issues, a US$300 million dollar issue by Export Development Canada to finance cleantech loans, and a C$500 million issue by TD to finance low-carbon projects. This April, RBC also hosted a conference on Green Bonds and signed on to the Green Bonds Principles