The Canadian Securities Administrators are making some changes to National Policy 12-201 Mutual Reliance Review System for Exemptive Relief Applications, effective July 15.

The CSA have issued a notice to announce the changes, but say that the changes aren’t material and therefore don’t require publication for comment. The current system was formally implemented Jan. 1, 2000. Since that time, a committee of CSA members has collected comments about how the system might be improved. And, as a result of that input, several changes have been adopted.

The changes clarify the pre-filing discussion procedure, and allow for e-mail communication between regulators and filers. They shorten the decision-making period for opting into a decision from seven business days to five business days.

They also provide that principal regulators will recirculate draft decision documents to non-principal regulators if the relief requested or the terms and conditions of that relief have changed substantially either during or after the application review period.