The proposed reforms to Canada’s systems of regulating securities are a misguided jumble of contradictions
A shiny bright “Cooperative Capital Markets Regulatory System” (CCMRA), a cooperative enterprise between the federal government and five provinces to create a one-stop securities regulator, is set to hit the show room floor next September. Regrettably, instead of a Porsche Carrera, it looks much more like a Ford Edsel.
For some years now, the federal government has been hell bent for leather to supplant Canada’s existing 13 securities regulators (10 provincial and three territorial) with a single pan-Canadian regulatory body. In 2011, however, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that that the federal government’s constitutional authority in the securities law domain is limited to matters of systemic risk affecting the country as a whole. As discussed in this space yesterday and the day before, the CCMRA is thus an attempt to marry the respective constitutional authorities of provincial and federal governments in a single entity.
Jeffrey MacIntosh – Special to Financial Post – December 9, 2014.
Want More Investigative Content?
