The B.C. Securities Commission is not doing its part to cut down on rules and regulations, says a report from B.C.’s Ministry of State for Deregulation.

The report says the BCSC has actually increased the number of regulations it imposes over the past two years. In June 2001, the BCSC administered 21,316 regulations. In September that number had increased by 158 to 21,474. The BCSC was one of only two parts of the B.C. government that recorded increases in the number of regulations during the period; the other was the office of the attorney general.

The report says that, overall, 64,662 regulations have been cut from the government in total, bringing the aggregate total down to 317,477 from 382,139 back in 2001. The B.C. government has pledged to cut down on the total number of regulations it imposes by one-third within its first three years in office. It says that it is now half way toward its total.

The BCSC is moving ahead with a deregulation project that would see it replace many of its rules with principles of conduct. It hopes to have these reforms ready for the spring 2004 legislative session.

The report does notes that the commission has consolidated and harmonized registration, prospectus and issuer bid exemptions in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nova Scotia for trades to employees, senior officers, directors and consultants; that it has granted relief from delivery requirements to mutual fund dealers selling mutual funds under pre-authorized purchase plans; and, that it adopted national rules for disclosure standards in upstream oil and gas activities.