Notice from the Office of the Secretary: Amendment and Consolidation of the Rules of Procedure of the Ontario Securities Commission as of August 31, 2010

TORONTO – The Rules of Procedure of the Ontario Securities Commission (Commission) came into force on April 1, 2009 ((2009), 32 O.S.C.B. 1991), and apply to all proceedings before the Commission commencing on or after that date (Rules).

On July 20, 2010, the Commission approved the adoption of a new Rule 12 of the Rules concerning Settlement Agreements. The new Rule 12 took effect on that date, and now applies to all proceedings before the Commission, including proceedings commenced by a Notice of Hearing issued prior to the adoption of the new Rule ((2010), 33 O.S.C.B. 6653).

On August 31, 2010, the Commission approved amendments to bring the Rules into conformity with amendments to the Statutory Powers Procedure Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. S.22 (SPPA) which replaced “counsel or an agent” with “representative”. The term “representative” is defined in subsection 1(1) of the SPPA to mean “in respect of a proceeding to which this Act applies, a person authorized under the Law Society Act to represent a person in that proceeding” and reflects amendments to the Law Society Act, R.S.O. 1980, c. L.8, that gave the Law Society of Upper Canada power to license and regulate non-lawyer agents or “paralegals”.

The Commission also approved a housekeeping amendment to Subrule 2.5(2) of the Rules, replacing the 2 day deadline for publication of initiating documents in the Ontario Securities Commission Bulletin (Bulletin), which is published weekly, with a requirement for publication in the Bulletin “as soon as possible”. There is no change to the requirement that documents “be posted on the Website upon confirmation of service on the parties or, in any event, no later than 2 days following the issuance of the Notice of Hearing”.

These recent amendments take effect immediately and apply to all proceedings before the Commission, including proceedings commenced by a Notice of Hearing issued by the Office of the Secretary prior to the adoption of the amended Rules. The amendments to the Rules were adopted pursuant to section 25.1 of the SPPA.

Publication of the Rules

The amended and consolidated Rules of Procedure are published in chapter 5 of this issue of the OSC Bulletin and are available on the Commission’s website.

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
JOHN P. STEVENSON
SECRETARY