OSC Goals & PMAC’s Top Advocacy Requests

PMAC is supportive of the four overarching goals set out in the Statement of Priorities, as well the work plans set out in support of those goals. We are pleased to have the opportunity to provide the following feedback on certain aspects of the OSC’s priorities of specific importance to PMAC’s members, starting with four of our most urgent advocacy requests – two that are expressly mentioned in the Statement of Priorities and two that we believe merit inclusion in the final Statement of Priorities:

Goal 1 – Building Trust and Fairness in Ontario’s Capital Markets:

• Self-Regulatory Organizations (SRO): Maintain direct regulation of PMs (and IFMs and EMDs) by the CSA and do not delegate regulation of these registrants to the new SRO.
• Total Cost Reporting (TCR): PMAC was disappointed to learn that, notwithstanding the significant stakeholder concerns expressed with respect to TCR, as currently proposed, the CSA intends to publish final amendments in April of 2023. PMAC is supportive of measures that increase investor understanding and transparency and, from a policy perspective, we were supportive of the proposals. However, as discussed in more detail below, PMAC voiced several material issues with the proposals that we do not believe have been addressed and that merit further consultation.

Goal 3 – Adapting Regulation to Align with Innovation and Evolving Markets:

• Ease of Doing Business – expanding opportunities: The COVID-19 pandemic brought many changes to the investment landscape, including that individual registrants and their clients may be residing and/or working in different locations. We believe there are opportunities to support registrants with respect to advising clients in other Canadian jurisdictions where the registrant firm is not registered, which often is in the client’s best interest. The process of becoming initially registered in an additional CSA jurisdiction gives rise to additional compliance obligations (in the form of bi-annual surveys, sweeps, questionnaires) and fees that can outweigh the benefit of registering in order to advise a small number of clients. We have discussed the possibility of a limited registration exemption in certain circumstances with OSC and other CSA staff and will be submitting a formal submission on this issue early in the new year.
• Ease of Doing Business – removing barriers: We value the work being done by OSC Staff across all branches of the Commission. We believe that there are several ways in which reducing barriers to compliance can increase the ease of doing business for OSC registered firms and support the work of the OSC, recognizing that both the tight labour market in our industry and budgetary constraints are not within the control of the OSC itself. These include ensuring that the OSC is appropriately resourced from a staffing and technical capacity. An increase in staffing could reduce backlogs in approvals, reviews and exemptive relief, providing greater certainty for firms and enabling them to more efficiently serve their clients in the context of turbulent markets. Systems improvements could reduce friction, confusion, and unnecessary frustration, especially as it relates to NRD filings. We discuss these issues in more detail below. We strongly believe that any changes made by the OSC – be they regulatory or technical in nature (such as the NRD password updates) – should be evidence-based and tested to ensure that the change is of benefit to investors and Ontario’s capital markets.

We note our appreciation for the thoughtful and detailed dialogue that OSC Staff have engaged in with PMAC and our membership on the issues listed above. Due to the importance of certain of these issues to our members, we have elaborated on them in greater detail below.

Click here to view the full submission.