* Says a common position might be reachable
* Goal is to replace provincial and territorial patchwork
* Flaherty met Ontario minister
* December high court decision changed ball game
OTTAWA, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Canadian Finance Minister Jim
Flaherty said on Tuesday he has seen movement in discussions on
creating a national securities regulator, and expressed optimism
that federal and provincial authorities can reach a common
position.
“We’ve made some significant progress. I don’t want to be
overly optimistic, but I think there is some prospect that we’ll
be able to get to a common position,” Flaherty told reporters
after discussing the issue with Ontario Finance Minister Dwight
Duncan.
The goal has been to create one securities regulator that
will replace the patchwork of 13 provincial and territorial
regulators, or at least to cover most of them if not all
provinces opt in. The French-speaking province of Quebec, which
recently elected a provincial government that wants to separate
from Canada, could well remain a holdout.
The character of the new regulator would be different than
originally planned, in light of a Supreme Court of Canada ruling
last December that said day-to-day regulation of financial
markets is a provincial responsibility. The court said, however,
the federal government could legitimately get involved in areas
related to systemic risk, and pointed to a more cooperative
approach as the way to go under the Canadian
constitution.
Some of the provinces had argued against Flaherty’s original
vision, but after the Supreme Court decision forced Flaherty to
rethink the plan, they have been pushing ahead to try to reach a
consensus.
Asked if there would now be a national securities regulator,
Flaherty said: “You know, I wish I could say yes. I’ve been
working on this for 6-1/2 years. I’m very cautious about it. I
think we’ve made some progress. There’s a lot of good will.
We’ll see in the next little while.”
