A notice from staff of the Ontario Securities Commission indicates that the OSC has decided to temporarily discontinue renewing registrants until next year.

In order to make the adjustment to a common annual fee payment date, registrations that have expired since Dec. 1, 2000 have been renewed until December 31, 2001.

Canadian securities regulators are developing a Web-based registration system called the National Registration Database, which will require registrants to pay an annual registration fee in December.

Due to the delayed implementation of NRD until late 2002, OSC staff have decided to stop those renewals. The OSC expects that the practice of renewing all registrants to December 31 will resume in 2002, the year in which NRD is expected to be operational.

The implementation of the permanent registration rules will be postponed until the implementation of NRD.