Tuesday, October 21, 1997
Geller resignation shocks OSC
Investor complaints up 80% in quarter
OSC uncovers disclosure worries
Changes mooted on insider trading
By DAN WESTELL
The Financial Post
The Ontario Securities Commission is starting life as an independent
agency under a cloud of controversy caused by the unexpected and
apparently forced resignation of acting chairman Jack Geller.
Ontario Finance Minister Ernie Eves said yesterday legislative changes
passed in June to restructure the commission will be proclaimed into law
Nov. 1.
The changes will make the agency self-funding -- the fees it collects will
be used to run its own operations, rather than being a revenue source for
the government -- and free it from civil service rules.
But as Eves was announcing the long-awaited proclamation date, Geller
was telling about 200 securities industry representatives at the annual
day-long "Dialogue with the OSC" he was leaving for the good of the
agency.
The proclamation of the OSC's self-funding status "has been held up
because the minister does not wish to appoint me as permanent chair of the commission," Geller said.
"I earnestly hope that the minister will now go forward with the proclamation and with the
appointment of a new chair in whom he has confidence."
He refused to elaborate.
Eves's spokeswoman, Beverley Hammond, rejected Geller's version of events, saying the delay in the
proclamation had nothing to do with the acting chairman. "We've always said new agency, new face,"
she said.
The Ontario government has identified some candidates for the permanent chairman's job and is
assembling a small group of securities industry people to make recommendations to the minister,
Hammond said.
OSC insiders, industry representatives and other regulators were surprised and dismayed by the
discord.
British Columbia Securities Commission chairman Doug Hyndman and Alberta Securities
Commission chairman William Hess, who were at the OSC meeting, said they were concerned the
OSC was entering a period of turmoil with two senior jobs vacant. Executive director Brenda Eprile
recently announced her departure.
"I'm very disappointed [Geller] found it necessary'' to leave, Hyndman said. "He brought his own
common-sense revolution to the OSC."
With the collapse of the national securities commission proposal, the provincial bodies have been
trying to create a "virtual" national commission through increased co-operation and co-ordination.
To keep that process moving, "we can't afford an extended period of OSC paralysis," Hyndman
said.
Geller said he will step down as acting chairman on Nov. 1, a year after he was appointed. He will
stay as one of two vice-chairmen "for now." |
