(January 29 – 15:00 ET) – The Ontario Securities Commission has published for comment a discussion paper in connection with the commission’s preliminary determination to permit OSC Policy Statement No. 5.2 to expire on July 1.

The policy regulates the financing and, to some extent, the operations junior natural resource reporting issuers in Ontario not listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The policy does not regulate technical reporting and disclosure, the focus of National Instrument 43-101 which will be effective February 1, 2001 and which will upgrade the requirements in these areas.

The OSC reasons for allowing the policy to expire reflect the recent restructuring of Canada’s exchanges. Junior natural resource issuers are now primarily listed on the Canadian Venture Exchange, which has broadly equivalent regulation to that contained in Policy 5.2.

As well, the existing policy is an Ontario only policy. As such it is inconsistent with the objective of the Canadian Securities Administrator to establish consistent regulation across its member jurisdictions.

“We are constantly reviewing our regulation to ensure it continues to be relevant to the capital markets of Ontario,” said Kathy Soden, director of corporate finance for the OSC. “Our review of Policy 5.2 is consistent with this objective. We encourage market participants to comment on the discussion paper and look forward to reviewing their submissions.”

Written submissions should be addressed to the cecretary of the OSC and be received by March 30.