For many years lawyers, policy makers, scholars, and investors have debated the merits of, and the necessity for, a national securities regulator in Canada. Most have agreed that the status quo is unacceptable as a model of securities regulation. However, in December 2011 the Supreme Court of Canada, in the Reference Re Securities Act, held that a national securities act, as proposed by the federal government, would represent an intrusion by Parliament into provincial constitutional powers. The Court’s judgment raises the question of whether Canadian markets can continue to operate within the current, fragmented system, or whether the federal and provincial governments can work together to achieve a national model based on cooperation. This timely volume represents an effort by 17 leading academics and practitioners to contribute to the ensuing public policy debate. The book analyzes the Reference decision, examines its implications for both constitutional and administrative law in Canada, and raises important questions about the future of security regulation in Canada.

What’s Next For Canada? is essential reading for all those concerned with the future of Canadian security markets and the regulatory framework within which they operate, as well as those interested in the broader constitutional dimensions of this issue.

Anita Indira Anand is a professor of law and JR Kimber Chair in Investor Protection and Corporate Governance at the University of Toronto. Professor Anand served as associate dean at the law school from 2007 to 2009 and serves as the academic director of the Centre for the Legal Profession and its program on ethics in law and business. She is a senior fellow and member of the governing board at Massey College and is cross-appointed to the Rotman School of Management and the School of Public Policy and Governance, and serves as the director of policy and research at the Capital Markets Institute at Rotman. Her main research areas relate to the regulation of capital markets, with a specific focus on corporate governance, enforcement, capital raising techniques, and systemic risk.   In 2015, Professor Anand was appointed by Ontario’s minister of finance to the Expert Committee to Consider Financial Advisory and Financial Planning Policy Alternatives. She has conducted research for the Five-Year Review Committee, the Wise Person’s Committee, the Task Force to Modernize Securities Legislation in Canada, and the Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182. She was the inaugural chair of the Ontario Securities Commission’s Investor Advisory Panel (2010–2012) and the president of the Canadian Law and Economics Association (2009–2011). During the 2009–2010 academic year, Professor Anand was a visiting scholar at the Bank of Canada and a Herbert Smith visitor at the University of Cambridge. In 2005–2006, she was a Canada–US Fulbright scholar and visiting Olin scholar in law and economics at Yale Law School. In 2012, she was appointed to the Bertha Wilson Honour Society by the Schulich School of Law for service to the legal profession. She has received research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Law Foundation of Ontario, the Connaught Foundation, and others. 

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"[T]his collection of essays will be of great interest to securities lawyers and others concerned with the regulation or functioning of the securities market. But it will be just as interesting for constitutional lawyers and others concerned with the functioning of our federal system. And the entire collection is a case study on the choice of regulatory tools for economic regulation. Many observers will agree with me that the Court made a strange choice for securities regulation, and this collection has the constructive goal of trying to help us make the best of it."

Peter W. Hogg, QC (from the Foreword)