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“Ontario’s Securities Act has not been updated in over 15 years and has not kept pace with rapid change in global capital markets,” Phillips said Thursday.

“Ontario needs capital markets to attract and grow businesses that support and sustain an innovation economy that can compete for investment and talent worldwide.”

In an interview, Phillips said he wants the task force to examine international “best practices” and provide advice on how to make Canada, through Ontario, a bigger draw for global investors.

“We have global funds today that don’t have Canadian market allocations, so that means global investment isn’t coming into our province because of lack of a diversified capital market from the perspective of those investors,” Phillips said, adding that more “robust” public markets would benefit innovators and retail investors as well.

While investor protection is one of the priorities identified in the review, Phillips said he and his government “also want to make sure investors have access to the kind of investments they want to make so they can get the returns for their portfolios just like the big pensions and institutional investors can today.”

The chair of the newly appointed task force is Walied Soliman, Canadian chair of law firm Norton Rose Fulbright. The volunteer task force will itself be advised by a group of a dozen experts that includes members from the legal, regulatory, investment and academic communities. Among the expert advisors are Naizam Kanji, director of the office of mergers & acquisitions at the Ontario Securities Commission, and Larry Ritchie, a partner at law firm Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, who is a former vice-chair of the OSC.