As a brief summary a number of exchanges are listed in the Income Tax Act. The registered investments that may be invested in them are deemed to be the designated stock exchange. It is a very limited list, mostly North American and European exchanges. The world has been shifting. The global investments have increased and yet not many exchanges have been added to that list over the last 20 to 25 years. For example, the Korean exchange is not on that list. A registered account cannot directly purchase a security such as Samsung. There are no South American exchanges. The Brazilian exchange is not on that. We encourage the government and the Department of Finance to find ways of adding more exchanges to the list of designated stock exchanges, allowing Canadians to better diversify their registered investment savings, but off the top of my head Korea, some Russia exchanges, and Brazil would be good examples.
On October 27th, 2014. See this statement in context.