Finance committee  As I said many years ago, I could not see a national regulator happening in Canada, and I still feel that way. I don't have the solution for it. I had hoped the government might be able to take action to protect Canadians in working with the established regulatory silos. There'

Finance committee  If the rules and regulations were followed and if the codes of ethics were adhered to, I would not see much of a problem. The problem I see is all that information is made available to the public, so they believe they can put their trust in these financial institutions. However

Finance committee  Well, I'm not arguing against different silos for regulation. What I am saying is that I believe the Government of Canada should be responsible for the welfare of all Canadians. I feel they should have the responsibility to ensure that all Canadians are protected and that agency

Finance committee  That's absolutely correct.

Finance committee  We have focused on the securities industry simply because most Canadians own mutual funds, and as Larry has pointed out, people are losing billions of dollars investing in mutual funds. The problem in Canada is that we don't have one single regulator. In Quebec, they're a bit c

Finance committee  Yes, I'd like to make a general comment on investor education. As has been said, the industry is complex and the regulatory system is complex. There are myriad products out there, and really, people do need somebody to advise them. What we need is advisers who can be trusted. T

Finance committee  We've recently looked at the FCAC, and we saw that they established rules and guidelines and then they told the banks to self-regulate. In our experience in talking to hundreds and hundreds of people, if you listen to what the people are saying, it's contrary to what you're read

Finance committee  Absolutely. What I'm hearing is the truth. This is what we said to the committee: you need to talk to the witnesses to discover the truth, because the good words of the regulators, really, those rules and regulations are not applied. The problem is they're basically selling fina

Finance committee  The problem I see is this sales culture is not what employees expect when they go to the bank. They feel they're providing a bank service that is good for clients, and I think most Canadians do trust the banks and financial institutions. However, the requirements of the positions

Finance committee  Good afternoon. I will be brief. SIPA, or the Small Investor Protection Association, is incorporated as a national non-profit organization. We are fortunate to have the support of many volunteers who devote their time and energy to our work as we try to raise awareness among Can

Finance committee  That's very good. I hear you loud and clear.

Finance committee  One of the problems we see is that we continue to refer to rules and regulations and mandates, but these are limited. That's why we say we need an authority that would be independent from industry to be responsible for investment protection. We think that's the solution.

Finance committee  Yes, I would confess that she is a member of our association. We have a number of people who are members of our association, but we feel that my voice alone is not enough, so these people speak out on specific topics. Ken Kivenko is our expert on mutual funds. We have a professor

Finance committee  My opinion is that the main fault with the regulatory system is that it's set up based on prescriptive rules, and this can be quite onerous but still ineffective in protecting investors. To me, there's a fundamental lack of the sense of right and wrong. In our court system, the j

Finance committee  Over the years, a number of people have been warning that there are problems with the regulatory system, and I had the great pleasure of accompanying Dr. Al Rosen to Ottawa in June of the year Minister Flaherty issued the income trust decision. That created great flak, but Dr. Ro