Creating an environment favourable to entrepreneurship, enterprise formation and small business growth requires a broad range of mutually reinforcing and supportive policies.

In my latest Letter from the President, I explore ways to facilitate small and medium-sized business access to equity capital.

Click here to read the IIAC’s recommendations.

Extended delay in implementing the cooperative regulator, announced with the recent appointment of the Board of Directors, coupled with the reality of large provinces likely not participating in the new regulatory structure, have sparked media commentary that the cooperative effort may be doomed to eventual failure.

Skepticism is understandable, but one could take the opposite point of view. In my FP Comment I look at the part of the glass is half full.

Click here to read my Op-Ed, special to Financial Post.

Professor Mary Condon, former Commissioner of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), wrote an Op-Ed in the July 2016 issue of Investment Executive (IE) outlining the OSC’s position on the “best interest” standard.

She argued eloquently that a client best interest standard should be imposed on financial advisors and investment dealers. In her words, investors deserve no less. Condon puts it succinctly: a best interest standard “puts the client’s interests first” in all dealings.

The IIAC weighed in. In a Letter to the Editor I argued regulators should get the rules, guideposts and right culture in place, … Continue reading →

In its pre-budget submission, the IIAC stressed that well-managed government finances are the cornerstone of business and consumer confidence, and are critical to robust private sector investment spending and overall economic growth. Reining in spending and improving efficiencies in government activities are key to eliminating deficits and regaining the fiscal flexibility to tackle areas that are crucial to Canada’s long-term competitiveness.

By harnessing the available capital and expertise of the private sector, based on a “P3” financing model, the government could tap into the large pool of available private capital, thereby reducing the need to rely … Continue reading →

Following two years of back-to-back earnings gains, overall operating profit for Canada’s investment industry declined 13% year-over-year in 2015. Both revenue and profit improved for the industry as a whole in the first quarter of 2016.

Aggregate numbers do not tell the whole story. A tsunami of change continues to batter Canada’s investment industry.

– Fixed costs escalate relentlessly to meet the technology and systems demands of front and back office.

– Regulatory reforms not necessarily efficient as cost/compliance dimension not scoped out beforehand through cost-benefit analysis.

– Larger firms widen their competitive advantage with more … Continue reading →