Regulators from across the country defended looming changes to point-of-sale disclosure regulations at the Investment Funds Institute of Canada’s annual conference in Toronto on Tuesday, insisting the new framework will be principles-based, flexible and non-prescriptive.

“At its core, the point-of-sale project is an investor protection initiative, and an important investor protection initiative,” said Lawrence Ritchie, vice chair of the Ontario Securities Commission, at a panel discussion on the regulatory landscape that also featured Douglas M. Hyndman, chairman of the B.C. Securities Commission, and Don Murray, chairman of the Manitoba Securities Commission.

Ritchie added that there is a lot of misunderstanding about what the project is and what stage it’s at.

The Joint Forum of Financial Market Regulators is set to release the final draft of its framework to regulators next month, which has many industry members concerned about the delivery requirements it will impose.

The proposed changes will require a two-page “Fund Facts” document to be provided to investors prior to making a decision to invest in mutual funds.

But Ritchie emphasized that the framework will only set out basic principles, allowing individual firms to customize the requirements according to their business models.

“I think people will be very pleasantly surprised with how flexible it is, how non-prescriptive it is,” Ritchie said.

Once the framework is released and the principles have been established, there will be plenty of opportunities for input in terms of its implementation, said Hyndman.

“The mechanics still have to be worked out,” he said.

On the topic of creating a national securities regulator, the panelists said that although they’re committed to continue harmonizing the system as much as possible, the issue is ultimately in the hands of politicians.

“At the end of the day, it’s going to be a political decision,” said Murray. “All we can do right now is strive to improve our system.”

The current passport system is a step in the right direction, said Hyndman: “We need to continue to harmonize, we need to continue to streamline processes. To me, the passport system is the best thing on offer to achieve that right now.”

Touching on the volume of regulation in Canada, the panel acknowledged the Canadian Securities Administrators’ tendency to impose a heavy amount of regulation.

“Over the years, we’ve been pretty good a piling it on,” said Murray.

But more important than the amount of regulations that have been introduced is the need to make the rules more rational, logical and flexible, added Ritchie.

“We owe it to investors, we owe it to the industry, that we constantly look at how we’ve done things, and think about how we can do it better,” said Ritchie. “I think we’re committed to do that across the CSA.”