Ministers responsible for capital markets regulation in British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and the Yukon Territories published the proposed rules and a revised draft of the uniform provincial securities law that would have to be adopted to create the Co-operative Capital Markets regulator (CCMR) on Tuesday.
Both the rules and the draft Capital Markets Act (CMA) are now out for comment until Dec. 23. Additional draft regulations will be published for comment in the coming months, the ministers note, including a harmonized set of prospectus exemptions and a fee regulation.
“The delay in publishing the prospectus exemption proposals is intended to provide additional drafting time, given existing differences among [participating jurisdictions] and regulatory initiatives under consideration, without delaying this publication of the draft initial regulations,” the ministers say in a statement.
When the regulations are published, it’s expected that the proposed prospectus exemptions under the co-operative system will include existing harmonized exemptions, such as the accredited investor exemption, along with newly harmonized exemptions including the crowdfunding exemptions, offering memorandum (OM) exemption and others.
One significant difference between the proposed new provincial law and current securities law is the inclusion of provisions dealing with derivatives. The proposed rules also include a single set of requirements for exchange-traded and over-the-counter derivatives.
This is the first time that the draft rules for the proposed new regulatory system have been available for public comment. Last year, draft provincial and federal legislation was released for consultation, but many commenters complained that it was hard to comment properly without the proposed rules to review as well.
One of the other major concerns of some commenters on the initial drafts was the lack of an interface between the CCMR and the regulators that choose not to participate in the new co-operative model. That interface is not included in Tuesday’s proposals either.
“We expect that an interface will be agreed upon with non-participating jurisdictions. Any required amendments to the draft initial regulations or policies will be developed following that agreement,” the ministers say.
The ministers indicate they are also working on revising the proposed new federal law, the Capital Markets Stability Act (CMSA), and its initial regulations. However, it’s not expected that regulations will be proposed under the CMSA before the new authority becomes operational.
“Regulations to mitigate systemic risk will be developed only after a process of data analysis and risk identification,” the ministers say.
Policy-makers are also developing implementation legislation to facilitate the transition to the new regime and to integrate it into the general laws of each participating province and territory. The goal is to have the enabling federal and provincial legislation passed by June 30, 2016, and to have the new authority up and running by the autumn of 2016.
However, in addition to all of the legislative work that’s still to be done, the effort will face a constitutional court challenge in Quebec before then.