The Investment Industry Association of Canada is calling for changes to insolvency laws.

In a letter to Industry Canada, the newly-named IIAC commends progress being made to reform the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act and urges the minister to ensure that this reform remains a priority for the legislative agenda this year.

“However, the 2005 amendments in the former government’s Bill C-55… contained misdrafting and did not bring Canada to current international standards as embodied in U.S. legislation and European Union directives,” it says in the letter.

It is also requesting that Finance Canada make equivalent amendments to other acts to ensure that amendments in those laws parallel changes that it believes are required to the BIA and CCAA.

The IIAC’s paper to Industry Canada identifies the problems in current legislation and Bill C-55; sets out what changes are required and why; describes what Canadian capital markets and the economy have at stake if revisions are not made; explains why debtors are not disadvantaged by the proposed amendments; lists recent changes in other countries’ laws; and,summarizes other recommendations.