Capital Markets Act
1. Background
- On February 2020 the Ontario government formed the Capital Markets Modernization Taskforce (the "Taskforce") to seek advice and input from people and organizations on modernizing Ontario's capital markets and supporting economic growth and job creation;
- The Taskforce initial consultation report was released after listening to over 110 stakeholders about the challenges they face, including financial institutions, small and large publicly listed companies, independent investment dealers, industry associations, law firms and investor advocacy groups;
- The initial consultation report outlined more than 47 policy proposals to modernize the province's capital markets;
- The CSA members (other than the OSC) provided their assessment of the recommendations in the initial consultation report;
- On January 22, 2021 the final report was published. It contains 74 consequential recommendations to the Ontario Minister of Finance on how to transform the regulatory landscape for capital markets in Ontario, considering over 130 stakeholder comment letters received in response to the Consultation Report;
Taskforce recommendations: "Modernized Securities Legislation"
- The first recommendation of the Taskforce ("R1") is the introduction of the "Capital Markets Act" in Ontario that could be based on the draft proposed Capital Markets Act developed under CCMR, a modern statute to replace the Securities Act and the Commodity Futures Act;
- Consequently, an accompanying statute setting out a modernized governance and structure for the OSC would also be required;
- The Taskforce suggested that the Ministry of Finance work with the OSC towards implementing the Ontario version of the CMA by the end of 2021.
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