Shareholders' equity

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2021

Equity [Abstract]

Shareholders' equity

Shareholders’ equity

Authorized and issued share capital

The Company is authorized to issue an unlimited number of Common Shares, an unlimited number of First Preferred Shares, and an unlimited number of Second Preferred Shares. At December 31, 2021, no First or Second Preferred Shares had been issued.

The following table summarizes information related to Common Share balances as at December 31:

(number of shares in millions)	2021	2020	2019
Share capital, January 1	666.3	685.0	702.9
CP Common Shares repurchased	—	(20.4)	(19.0)
Shares issued under stock option plan	0.8	1.7	1.1
Shares issued for KCS acquisition (Note 11)	262.6	—	—
Share capital, December 31	929.7	666.3	685.0

The change in the “Share capital” balance includes $7 million of stock-based compensation transferred from “Additional paid-in capital” (2020 – $10 million; 2019 – $7 million).

Share repurchases

On January 27, 2021, the Company announced a normal course issuer bid ("NCIB"), commencing January 29, 2021, to purchase up to 16.7 million Common Shares in the open market for cancellation on or before January 28, 2022. As at December 31, 2021, the Company had not purchased any Common Shares under this NCIB.

On December 17, 2019, the Company announced a NCIB, commencing December 20, 2019, to purchase up to 24.0 million Common Shares in the open market for cancellation on or before December 19, 2020. Upon expiry of this NCIB, the Company had purchased 21.4 million Common Shares for $1,577 million.

On October 19, 2018, the Company announced a NCIB, commencing October 24, 2018, to purchase up to 28.4 million Common Shares for cancellation on or before October 23, 2019. The Company completed this NCIB on October 23, 2019.

All purchases were made in accordance with the respective NCIB at prevailing market prices plus brokerage fees, or such other prices that were permitted by the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX"), with consideration allocated to "Share capital" up to the average carrying amount of the shares and any excess allocated to "Retained earnings".

The following table provides activities under the share repurchase programs for each of the years ended December 31:

	2021		2020		2019
Number of Common Shares repurchased(1)	—		19,865,380		18,970,745
Weighted-average price per share(2)	$	—	$	74.35	$	60.13
Amount of repurchase (in millions)(2)	$	—	$	1,477	$	1,141

(1) Includes shares repurchased but not yet cancelled at year end.

(2) Includes brokerage fees.