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How much do you know about the Nova Scotia Securities Commission (NSSC) and the people behind it? The Before You Invest Blog has previously published posts on the Commission, highlighting our mandate and the role of the different Commission branches. But, what about the people that make up the Commission, the ones who shoulder that mandate and tirelessly work to protect Nova Scotia investors? Our new series “Getting to know the Nova Scotia Securities Commission” takes a closer look at some of these people, what they do and how they support the mandate of the NSSC. Today we begin with the Chair and CEO of the NSSC, Valerie Seager.
What is your role with the Nova Scotia Securities Commission?
I'm the Chair of the Nova Scotia Securities Commission and I'm responsible to provide leadership to ensure that we fulfill our mandate. That mandate is primarily investor protection, ensuring that we protect investors in fair and efficient markets. Our mandate also includes a component of capital formation provided it's not inconsistent with investor protection.
How do you support the mandate of NSSC?
I work with staff to formulate rules, laws, policies that affect investors, issuers, and capital market participants. I also provide direction where appropriate to enforcement. I’m also responsible for dealing with our commissioners. They are appointed by the government and perform an adjudicative role, by sitting on hearings. I work with them to ensure the panels are appropriately staffed, and to provide updates on relevant securities laws and administrative law. We have regular meetings with the commissioners to keep them up to date on commission developments. I also consider applications from the Director of Enforcement on a variety of matters. It's my job to make determinations about those applications. This includes things like temporary freeze asset orders, investigation orders, and the release of confidential information. Another big component is working with the securities regulators of other jurisdictions across Canada to ensure, as best we can, the harmonization of securities laws across Canada.
What should the public know about NSSC that they might not?
I don’t know if the public is aware how closely we work with the other jurisdictions in Canada and how much time we spend on that responsibility. There are securities regulators in all the provinces and territories of Canada. And since we don’t have a national securities regulator, each province and territory determine their own laws. The group of securities regulators across Canada, called the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), works together to try and harmonize as best we can the laws, policies, and rules across Canada. We meet regularly. At the CEO level, we meet virtually every two weeks and in person four times a year. At the staff level, they spend a huge amount of time on committees of the CSA dealing with a variety of matters. It could be enforcement matters, compliance matters, new policies or rules applicable to public offerings, derivatives, or advisers. It’s a never-ending stream of new initiatives that are developed. And from our perspective it’s very important that Nova Scotia participate on these committees to make sure that our voice is heard and that the interests of smaller jurisdictions like Nova Scotia are represented. Because, as you can imagine with so many regulators trying to come to consensus on different policies and rules, it takes a lot of discussion. It takes compromise. It takes a lot of drafts before we end up with something that everybody can agree on, and that meets the interests and different political and practical realities that each jurisdiction faces.
What do you find most challenging about your role?
The most challenging issue that we face as a Commission is the vast amount of investor fraud that’s proliferating in the world. It is a tsunami of fraud that is very difficult to combat. Social media, artificial intelligence, and the development of offshore scam communities have all contributed to this bombardment of information going to potential investors across the province. Once they are ensnared in a scammers' clutches, it’s very difficult to seek any kind of recourse for them. The scammers are usually offshore, and the money is long gone. It is very difficult to get appropriate justice for them. So, for us, the best offense is a good defense. We try and work on enhancing our investor education, making sure that Nova Scotians are aware of the hallmarks of fraud, what to look for when they’re making an investment, what to be wary of. If we can stop the money leaving the investor’s accounts before it goes somewhere, that’s the best recourse we have at the moment. One other tool that we have is disruption, trying to intercept that scam before it happens, or before the money leaves the country. And we do that with a variety of technology and tools to try and insert ourselves in the process.
What do you enjoy most about your role?
I just find it an interesting topic. I was a securities lawyer prior to joining the Commission. I find capital markets interesting. I like being involved in all the new developments and seeing what we can do to both protect investors and make sure we can have a functioning and thriving capital market that really helps foster the economic driver of the country.
How do you work with other securities regulators in Canada?
We deal with the CSA on a regular basis. And that is the primary mechanism we use to make sure that everybody, hopefully is on the same page. Sometimes we’re not. Some jurisdictions opt out of some rules, others don’t, but there’s a very civil and open discourse at the national level that makes sure that we try and do what’s best for the country.
What recent changes or additions to securities laws have been impactful to Nova Scotia investors?
One of the thing’s that recently been implemented is a number of client focused reforms, which are designed to ensure that advisers make sure that the interests of their clients are paramount among everything else. We’ve introduced a number of rules relating to ‘know your client,’ how the intake process should happen, how the advising process should happen to make sure that that interest is always paramount.