Supreme Court Holds National Securities Act To Be Unconstitutional

In a long-awaited decision released yesterday, the Supreme Court of Canada has unanimously held that the proposed Canadian Securities Act is unconstitutional as presently drafted, frustrating the hopes of those (including the federal government, the Province of Ontario, the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, among other intervenors) who had sought to replace the current system of 13 different provincial and territorial securities regulators with a single national securities regime.

Background

The notion of a Canadian national securities scheme has been percolating for more than 50 years. Numerous royal commissions, provincial panels and advisory committees have recommended the establishment, in one form or another, of a national securities regulator with jurisdiction over Canada's entire capital markets industry. These efforts gained momentum over the last decade, and in 2008 the federal government appointed an