On Tuesday, the Canadian Securities Transition Office revealed its draft plan for a national securities regulator that calls for no headquarters but instead local offices “where most of the organization's staff and expertise will reside” in each participating province and territory.
According to the 54-page “transition plan,” the country's new national securities watchdog would be among the most decentralized in the world. Gordon Raman, a partner in the Toronto office of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, says that “for the most part, whether you have a head office or not should not impact public companies that need to deal with a regulator.” The new body, he adds, will likely concentrate expertise where it is most logical – Alberta for oil and gas issues, British Columbia and Ontario for mining and Toronto for financial services and investment funds.