Organization Profile - Export Development Canada

Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development

Export Development Canada's (EDC) mandate is to support and develop Canada’s export trade and Canadian capacity to engage in that trade and to respond to international business opportunities. To fulfill this mandate, EDC provides trade finance and risk mitigation services to Canadian companies involved in export trade. It provides the support exporters needed to succeed in their chosen markets, complementing the programs and services of commercial banks. EDC provides export credit insurance to protect against uncontrollable events such as a buyer refusing to pay. This insurance is often used by Canadian companies to acquire working capital from their banks — because the bank is confident the exporter will collect payment from either the buyer or EDC. It operates like a business, collecting interest on loans and premiums for its insurance. This allows EDC to be financially self-sufficient.

Ottawa, Ontario

Export Development Act

Export Development Canada consists of a Board of Directors composed of thirteen directors, including a Chairperson and a President. The Chairperson and the President shall be appointed by the GIC to hold office during pleasure for such term as the GIC considers appropriate. Each director, other than the Chairperson and the President, shall be appointed by the Minister, with the approval of the GIC, to hold office during pleasure for such term not exceeding four years, as will ensure, as far as possible, the expiration in any one year of the terms of office of not more than one-half of the directors. A director is eligible for reappointment.

The Vice-Chairperson shall be elected by the Board from among its members.

The GIC may appoint a person to be an alternate director for any director who is selected from among persons employed in the Federal Public Administration and the alternate director so appointed shall act as a director during any period in which the director for whom he is an alternate is, by reason of absence or incapacity, unable to act.

In the event of the absence or incapacity of the Chairperson, or if the office of Chairperson is vacant, the Vice-Chairperson shall perform the functions of the Chairperson during the absence, incapacity or vacancy.

Where the Vice-Chairperson has been authorized to act as Chairperson and the Vice-Chairperson is absent or incapacitated or the office of Vice-Chairperson is vacant, such of the other directors as are present at a meeting shall, if they constitute a quorum of the Board or of the Executive Committee, select a director to act as Chairperson and the director so selected shall perform the functions of the Chairperson until such time as the Chairperson or Vice-Chairperson is available to perform them.

In the event of the absence or incapacity of the President, or if the office of President is vacant, the Board shall authorize a director or an officer of the Corporation to act as the President for the time being and shall fix the terms and conditions of the appointment and the remuneration, but no person so authorized by the Board has authority to act as President for a period exceeding sixty days without the approval of the GIC.

No officer or employee of a Crown corporation or any of its affiliates, other than the chief executive officer of a parent Crown corporation, shall be a director of the parent Crown corporation.

If a director is not appointed to take office on the expiration of the term of an incumbent director, other than an officer-director, the incumbent director continues in office until a successor is appointed.

The Financial Administration Act requires that before the President and the Chairperson of a parent Crown corporation are appointed, the Minister shall consult the Board of Directors of the Corporation with respect to the appointment.

Six directors (s.5(4) of By-Law No. 1)

The Auditor General is the auditor of the corporation.