Dead voters aren't the only thing Newfoundland doesn't have

According to a CBC story, for at least the last five years, Securities Commission of Newfoundland and Labrador has not had to fine anyone for securities law violations.  Despite the fact that this sounds great, I can't help but think it also sounds too good to be true.

Because the CBC piece doesn't really address the issues in Newfoundland (because they, like PEI, haven't fined anyone recently so there are no unpaid fines to collect) I decided that I should probably try to find the name of the entity responsible for enforcing securities regulations in Newfoundland.

A quick search lead me to a Newfoundland Government page that kind of suggested that the name of the relevant entity is the Securities Commission of Newfoundland and Labrador (and that this entity falls under the aegis of Service NL).

Of course, because this first website included very little of the information I was looking for (like the names of members of the Securities Commission) I decided a little more digging was needed.  It only took me a few more seconds to find the page of the Canadian Securities Administrators, which includes names and bios of provincial representatives.

The bio for the Newfoundland representative was quite a read.  Not only does the short write-up include a few biographical details about the representative, but it also mentions that this individual

is the Director of the Financial Services Regulation Division and was appointed Superintendent of Securities in December 2009. He is also the Superintendent of Insurance, Superintendent of Real Estate and Registrar of Mortgage Brokers and has responsibility for the regulation of Prepaid Funeral Contract Sellers.

But maybe more important than the fact that the Superintendent of Securities wears quite a number of hats simultaneously, is the fact that this bio also mentions that Securities Commission was eliminated in 2005.

Funny that the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador's website doesn't mention this.  Actually, there are still quite a number of references to the old securities commission scattered throughout the areas of the site that deal with securities regulation.

And because I found all of this a little curious I decided to quickly skim through the old versions of the law to see how the Securities Commission was constituted.  Apparently it had at least one member, but additional commissioners could be appointed. The other aspect of the law that immediately jumped out to me is that related to the investigatory powers of the Securities Commission.  The old version of the Securities Act included the following section:

3.4  In carrying out its duties under this Act, the commission has all the powers that are or may be conferred on a commissioner under the Public Inquiries Act .

The current version of the act doesn't seem to  provide the Superintendent with quite the same range of investigatory powers and requires that investigators empowered through the act, at least in some cases, to go to judges to seek prior approval for searches (this might be something of an improvement, if it investigations are actually initiated).

I've been trying to find out a little bit more about the Superintendent's office, but as of yet I haven't found much.  This, of course, contrasts with the Nova Scotia Securities Commission, a organization that provides easy access to their organizational chart and overall goals (as far as I can tell the name of the position of Superintendent of Securities, and that they are the chief securities regulator isn't even listed in an obvious and clear way on the main portion of the Newfoundland website).

Oh, one last thing about the 'securities' section of the Service NL website.  If you follow the link titled Public Orders all you find is the following text:

Copies of orders, rulings and decisions relating to discretionary relief can be obtained by calling (709) 729-4189.

Am I the only one that finds some of this a little strange?