The Alberta government is reiterating its pledge to fight for provincial jurisdiction over securities regulation.

The government introduced legislative amendments to facilitate the move to International Financial Reporting Standards, and introduce a regulatory framework for credit rating agencies, along with some other changes, which it says will further harmonize and modernize the province’s securities legislation.

Bill 13, the Securities Amendment Act, 2010, passed first reading in the Alberta legislature Thursday.

“This legislation further strengthens a provincial-based system that is working well in Alberta and in Canada, and that ranks second internationally according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, ahead of the United States and the United Kingdom,” said Ted Morton, Minister of Finance and Enterprise. “It is a system that serves Alberta companies and investors well, and these amendments make it better.”

The government also pledged to continue defending provincial jurisdiction over securities regulation and opposing the proposed national regulator.

It said that it will “continue its constitutional reference to the Alberta Court of Appeal to challenge the authority of the federal government to create a single federal securities regulator. Alberta believes securities regulation is a matter of provincial jurisdiction, as it has been historically.”

It also stressed that it is “concerned that federal intrusion in this area could set a precedent for federal intrusion into other areas of provincial responsibility, including the rest of the financial services sector, such as pensions, insurance, credit unions and other provincial financial institutions.”

In addition to its own reference, Alberta will also intervene in support of Quebec’s constitutional reference to the Québec Court of Appeal.

IE