Howard Wetston, incoming chair of the Ontario Securities Commission, says enforcement, investor protection and proactive policymaking are his top priorities.

Appearing Tuesday before the Ontario Standing Committee on Government Agencies, which approved his appointment, Wetston said that he fully supports the plan to adopt a national securities regulator in Canada.

“I am committed to supporting the Ontario government, the Canadian Securities Transition Office and participating provincial regulators to make this important goal a reality,” he said, adding, “And given the size of Ontario’s capital markets, Toronto should be prominent within a national regulatory structure since Toronto is Canada’s financial capital.”

“During the transition to a national regulator, I shall act in the best interests of the OSC and its staff primarily because they offer excellent expertise and one of my goals would be to transfer that expertise to the national regulator,” he added.

In the meantime, Wetston said that he will focus on three areas at the OSC.

Enforcement
Wetston said that the OSC’s existing compliance and enforcement regime “is vigorous and active”, but he added that “it must be more visible and better understood by market participants and the public in order to have the desired deterrence effect.” He said that the enforcement process must be streamlined as much as possible to enable cases to move through the system faster.

Investor protection
Wetston singled out investor protection as a priority. “The interests of investors must be at the core of everything that we do and we must err on the side of protecting investors,” he said. “This will be even more critical during these transformational times, when investors have even greater concerns for protection.” He added that the commission needs input from investors.

Proactive policymaking
Wetston called for more proactive rule making. “We need regulatory responses that are ‘risk oriented’ in order to restore confidence in the markets. Market quality is important and investor confidence is crucial. We must get ahead of the curve and anticipate the risks that may threaten in the future,” he suggested.

“The OSC must help level the playing field between the investor and the market participant,” Wetston said. “We will continue to work with our provincial colleagues, self-regulatory organizations and international regulators to ensure that our regime remains consistent with global standards.”

IE