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August 2020 Advocacy Newsletter
Summary:
The taskforce was formed in February of this year and reports directly to Ontario’s Minister of Finance. It prepared an initial public consultation report highlighting 47 high-impact policy proposals and seeks feedback prior to providing the Minister with its final list of initial recommendations. The proposals are wide-ranging and include topics such as governance of the OSC, improving regulatory structure, reducing duplicative regulatory burden, enhancing competition for smaller capital markets players, and improving investor protection. Among the proposals are suggestions to separate the regulatory and adjudicative functions at the OSC, moving to a single SRO, streamlining continuous disclosure requirements making it easier to raise capital through additional prospectus exemptions and relaxing restrictions on EMDs. Several proposals relate to the proxy voting system, including the addition of proxy advisory firm regulation and rules to prevent over-voting, as well as suggestions to increase OSC enforcement powers and give OBSI authority to issue binding decisions. Other proposals relate to fostering innovation, such as the creation of a regulatory sandbox involving both the OSC LaunchPad and FSRA.