Reference re Securities Act 2018

The 2018 Reference upheld the cooperative capital markets regulatory system. Where the 2011 federal Securities Act was struck for ultra vires, the 2018 cooperative model — federal-provincial agreement, federal involvement focused on systemic risk and national data — was held intra vires.

Quebec referred the constitutionality of the cooperative capital markets agreement and proposed federal Capital Markets Stability Act.

Is the cooperative model intra vires?

Yes.

Cooperative federalism allows shared regulation where Parliament's general trade and commerce power supports a national framework targeted at systemic-risk and national-data dimensions, with provincial regulation of day-to-day securities trading. The cooperative model respects the division of powers in a way the 2011 unilateral model did not.

The Court emphasised that the 2018 model addressed systemic risk and national data, leaving day-to-day regulation to provinces. The earlier Securities Reference had struck a comprehensive federal regime that duplicated provincial competence. The narrower cooperative model survived.

Validates the cooperative-federalism framework as a tool for handling national matters with provincial dimensions. Influences debate on federal action in environmental, health, and economic matters.

Reference re Pan-Canadian Securities Regulation, 2018 SCC 48.

Wagner CJ, Abella J, Moldaver J, Karakatsanis J, Gascon J, Côté J, Brown J, Rowe J, Martin J