For investors, 13 different security regulators is 12 too many

Jun 01, 2008 | 09:05 AM |

It may be only a baby step, but Canada finally appears to be inching closer to addressing one of the mining industry's chief beefs about doing business in the country its fragmented approach to securities regulation.

Canadian Finance Minister James Flaherty in February appointed a panel of experts to advise him on how to create a common securities regulator. The 11-member panel, headed by a former Canadian Minister of International Trade, Thomas A. Hockin, will report back to Flaherty by the end of this year.

Streamlining the country's regulatory burden on companies is going to require a Herculean effort that only begins with the establishment of the panel. But after many years of bitter resentment over the complex layering of securities regulation in Canada, the government appears committed to taking action—if the ruling Conservative minority government, which lacks the majority of seats in Parliament to ensure electoral stability, stays in power long enough to see the efforts come to fruition. ....