Provincial ‘opt-in’ plan for securities regulator proposed

A new report published by a panel headed by former Imasco Ltd. chairman Purdy Crawford recommends that Canadian provinces that want to form a national securities regulator should create one allowing provinces that aren’t in favour to opt out.
Provinces, the report says, forming a national agency will be able to reduce costs and improve enforcement.
“(This would) reassure foreign investors that Canada is an attractive place in which to place risk capital,” the report says. “It will create consistent securities regulation and enforcement across Canada.”
A single securities regulator should, Crawford says in the 23-page report, be created to streamline the current 13 provincial and territorial agencies as Canada is the only industrialized nation without a single national regulator.
Provinces including Qubec and B.C. oppose the formation of a single regulator but under the ‘opt-in’ idea they could join the Canadian Securities Commission later.
“We expect that, over time, as the CSC establishes a regulatory track record and gains recognition in Canada and abroad, all Canadian jurisdictions will opt in,” the panel says in the report.
Each government involved in the formation of a securities regulator would have one vote for the selection of the board of directors and for adjudicators in a separate tribunal for hearings into rules violations, according to the proposed plan.
According to the report, a head office could be located in any one of Canada’s four largest provinces Ontario, Qubec, British Columbia or Alberta. The report also calls for the creation of regional offices.