(April 3 – 17:25 ET) – The push to liberalize Ontario’s exempt market will get a boost this week from Northern Financial Corp.

Vic Alboini, president and CEO of Northern Financial, will be meeting with representatives from Ontario’s Ministry of Finance and the Ontario Securities Commission to discuss the regulations surrounding private placements. Ontario has been contemplating an overhaul of this regime for years now.

Last fall it finally put out a new rule for comment, and it was expected to move to liberalize the system early this year. With the tough markets, opening up the exempt market has become particularly important for fledgling firms such as Northern Financial and Baystreetdirect.com.

According to a Northern Financial spokesperson, Alboini feels strongly that Canadians are missing prime investment opportunities as a result of OSC regulations. Northern notes that the recent surge in retail investing has been limited to the secondary market, which is dominated by professional money managers.

In Ontario, as in most provinces, participation in the exempt market is limited to those with over $150,000 to invest. Only British Columbia. has cut the minimum to $25,000 under certain circumstances.

Under the proposed changes in Ontario private placements will be opened to those persons with $1 million in financial assets, or $200,000 in income. Alboini will argue that even the new standards aren’t the best way to approach the exempt market.

“For those who favour the democratization of Canadian financial services, the proposed OSC rule changes do not meet the needs of an ever-changing, savvy retail investor market. The balance between investor protection and the promotion of efficient capital markets has been tipped in favour of the rich, and precludes average investors from participating.”

Northern will propose that investors with at least $200,000 in financial assets be allowed to participate in private placements, with a limit of investing 20% of assets in any one private placement. It will also recommend that small-cap companies and closely held companies should be able to use the Internet and broker services to raise private capital online.

“By changing policy to enable online access to private placements, and by lowering the barriers to entry in private placement deals, the OSC will serve two important, interrelated needs: the need to empower investors to participate in private placements, and the need for a broad base of private Canadian capital to support Canadian small-cap companies.”