The British Columbia Securities Commission published a blanket
order, B.C. Instrument 51-512 Certain Private
Placements, on March 23, 2015 which expands
existing exemptions in B.C. from the application of Multilateral
Instrument 51-105 Issuers Quoted in the US Over-the-Counter
Markets.
As
we've previously discussed MI 51-105 can
subject issuers who carry out private placements to Canadian public
company obligations. Adopted by every province other than Ontario,
MI 51-105 is intended to discourage the manufacture and sale of
OTC-quoted shell companies that can be used to facilitate abusive
market practices.
In response to the concern that MI 51-105 would have the
unintended effect of subjecting major well-established issuers that
trade OTC in the U.S. to Canadian public company reporting
obligations, regulators in almost all Canadian jurisdictions that
adopted MI 51-105 have issued blanket orders to exempt certain
issuers from the application of the instrument
