New National Securities Regulator Coming for Canada

Some will breathe a sigh of relief, others will groan in anticipation of increased costs and more hoops to jump through. No matter what your feeling is, Canada is moving definitively down the path of a single national securities regulator with the announcement today of a cooperative regulation framework among the Federal Government, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), and the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC).

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty made the announcement earlier today, stipulating that the target date for activation of the national regulator is July 1, 2015.

The BCSC was opposed to the centralization of regulation, whereas Ontario and the Feds have been trying to seek a way forward since the defeat of an initiative by the Supreme Court of a Federal initiative to create a national regulator.

“All of us listened and we came together, putting aside our differences to focus on a common goal: to modernize our capital markets and to make them more competitive,” Flaherty said.

Canada is the only member of the G7 group of countries lacking a national securities regulator.

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