Under Québec legislation, the FTQ is specifically named as the sponsor of Fonds de solidarité. Sponsor powers include nominating the majority of the Board of Directors or ten of seventeen members. A further two directors are elected by common shareholders at an annual general meeting. This group of twelve selects four more directors representing Québec business and financial constituencies and socio-economic agents. The President and Chief Executive Officer of the Fonds de solidarité is the final appointee.
Board decision-making is assisted by an extensive committee system, including an Executive Committee comprised of directors. With the advent of specialized, regional and local funds in recent years, the Fonds de solidarité has increasingly moved towards sharing decisions with external investors, local representatives, and experts in certain fields.
The Chairperson of the Board of Directors currently is Fernand Daoust, who is also the former President of the FTQ. The President and Chief Executive Officer is Claude Blanchet.
In 1995, the Fonds de solidarité employed 226 persons.
The legal definition of an eligible investor in the Fonds de solidarité is any Québec resident when purchasing common (Class A) shares. These shareholders ascertain their rights and tax benefits if they also hold onto their investment until the age of retirement (or age 60, subject of a two-year minimum). This long duration has justified a long list of exceptions for early redemption, including the investor's death or health impairment, exhaustion of unemployment insurance, emigration, or personal decisions, such as starting a business.
In the beginning, the Fonds de solidarité obtained a virtual exemption from the Commission des valeurs mobilieres du Québec to undertake shareholder recruitment using volunteer union agents and resources that reached FTQ members in union and workplace settings. Though monitored by securities regulators, the fund effectively directs the promotional efforts of this sales force, which recently numbered over 2,000 active volunteers and operated chiefly out of some forty permanent and temporary offices set up across Québec.
The Fonds de solidarité also assumes responsibility for training sales personnel, according to precepts acceptable to regulators. This occurs annually and in follow-up sessions, as required.