After a meeting of six key provincial finance ministers today, the possibility of a single national regulator is now up for discussion among the provinces.

Cathy Housdorff, spokesperson to Alberta Revenue Minister Greg Melchin, said the six ministers on the steering committee (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan) had a “good meeting”, that ended with both a passport model and a single-regulator model under consideration. Melchin is spearheading the group that last year agreed to move ahead with reform to create a passport system.

Ontario was on board with the passport system too, when Progressive Conservative Janet Ecker was finance minister. However, the new Liberal minister in Ontario, Greg Sorbara, indicated that his government would prefer a national regulator.

This view received support from a federal committee, which produced a report in mid-December recommending a single, joint federal-provincial model. The new federal finance minister, Ralph Goodale, has supported this conclusion, indicating his desire to see a single regulator too.
Coming out of today’s meeting,

Housdorff said both options are now on the table. “There is a renewed level of cooperation and commitment to reform,” she said. “At this point, nothing is off the table.”

She said that various provincial officials will continue discussions on options and that the ministers will meet again in a month, probably by teleconference, to discuss the issue again.