Federal finance minister Jim Flaherty is promising to push ahead and create a common securities regulator, with plans to introduce a common federal-provincial bill next year.

Speaking to the Senate Banking Committee yesterday, Flaherty indicated that the government favours a common regulator in line with the model proposed by the committee struck to study the issue by the Ontario government, chaired by Purdy Crawford. “We are moving forward on our discussions on this subject. We view it as essential in order to have the proper flow of capital within our country and access by Canadians to opportunities,” Flaherty said, adding that it is also necessary to secure freer trade in securities.

“If we are to move forward with international mutual recognition of security regulators, we need to get ourselves together and have a common securities regulator system here in Canada,” he said, adding, “We would make the regulation of our markets more responsible and accountable by creating a decision-making body that would coordinate the views of all jurisdictions promptly and fairly.”

The issue will be discussed with the provincial finance ministers next week, and Flaherty indicated that the government plans to introduce a bill to bring the common regulator to fruition next year.

He also suggested that the model will favour UK-style principles-based regulation over U.S.-style rules-based regulation. “That has met with some positive responses from the community, certainly, and from some of the government, so we need to talk about that as we move down the road to a common bill,” he noted.

As for the bill, Flaherty explained that it could introduce a common bill in the federal Parliament and the provinces could introduce it in their legislatures, “and we could do this together”. However, he allowed that, “There has to be a will to do that, of course.”