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If you haven’t already heard, the securities regulatory authorities of British Columbia, Manitoba, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon (the participating jurisdictions) announced that they will revoke their substantially harmonized registration exemptions that form the “Northwestern Exemption” (the local orders). This announcement was made in Multilateral CSA Notice 32-302 (the Notice) Notice of Revocation for Certain Local Orders Providing Registration Exemption for Trades in Connection with Certain Prospectus-Exempt Distributions and Update on BC Instrument 32-517 Exemption from Dealer Registration Requirement for Trades in Securities of Mortgage Investment Entities.

The local order in BC is BC Instrument 32-513 Registration Exemption for Trades in Connection with Certain Prospectus-Exempt Distributions (BCI 32-513). BCI 32-513 as well as the local orders in the other participating jurisdictions will cease to be effective on April 30, 2019. Alberta and Saskatchewan are also considering revoking their local orders.

The BC Securities Commission (the BCSC) further announced that it will not be renewing BC Instrument 32-517 Exemption from Dealer Registration Requirement for Trades in Securities of Mortgage Investment Entities (BCI 32-517). BCI 32-517 will cease to be effective February 15, 2019. The Notice did not state why BCI 32-517 will cease to be effective sooner than BCI 32-513.

The Notice discusses that the Capital Markets Regulatory Authority (CMRA) had communicated in published commentary to the draft initial regulations that the registration exemptions would not carry forward to the CMRA. However, the fate of the CMRA is unknown given the announcement that the CMRA will not be ready for business in December 2018. Therefore, the securities regulatory authorities of the participating jurisdictions decided to take the initiative to revoke their local orders and BCI 32-517 in the BCSC’s case because they firmly believe that investors would benefit considerably from the additional protections of the registration regime.

This article contains general information only and is not intended to provide a legal opinion or advice. Please consult a lawyer for matters related to your situation before relying on any of the statements made in this article.

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