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Other Securities Act changes introduced Monday include:

• Removing a 15-year time limit on penalties;

• Expanding the BCSC’s investigative powers, including powers to obtain information;

• Strengthening obligations and sanctions relating to records;

• Adding an ability to order administrative monetary penalties without a hearing for contraventions of regulations or decisions;

• And adding protection for whistleblowers.

The legislative changes also establish a new regime for derivatives, an advanced investment instrument that helped create the U.S. mortgage and financial crisis in 2008.

Ermanno Pascutto, the executive director of the Canadian Foundation for Advancement of Investor Rights lauded the changes.

“B.C. is setting the bar high when it comes to protecting people’s investments,” Pascutto said in a written statement. “These amendments to improve fine collection rates are some of the most far-reaching in Canada and align with international best practice.”

Brenda Leong, the chair and CEO of the BCSC, said the changes were sweeping and in some cases novel. The commission had taken a broad view to proposals it put to the provincial government, she said.

She said it was too early to say how much the changes would increase fine collection.

The most important change is the ability to preserve assets transferred under value, said Leong.

“The amendments empower our investigators to ask specific questions of the alleged wrongdoer, their family members or other third-parties if we have a reasonable basis to believe they may have information related to property that could be used to satisfy a financial sanction,” she said.

James said the B.C. government will also be pressing the federal government to enact changes to allow securities commission penalties to survive bankruptcy.

Last year, another major change was introduced when the B.C. government signed off on a regulatory fee increase to boost the BCSC’s budget by $7.6 million, about 16 per cent, to add officers to its criminal investigation team and regulate new financial technologies such as crypto currency.

ghoekstra@postmedia.com

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