Ms. Stymiest told delegates to the conference that recently some observers have called for tougher governance rules in Canada along the lines of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. These rules came in the light of the high profile cases involving Enron, Adelphia, Tyco, and WorldCom. Canada, on the other hand, has gone down the road toward voluntary compliance and mandatory disclosure where the discipline comes from investors more than the regulators.
Recently, the Ontario Securities Commission, in its annual review, found that of 517 companies, that there's been no serious evidence of wrongdoing among Canadian companies. "That result, I would suggest, is not an accident," said Ms. Stymiest. "It's a direct result of the basic soundness of our approach to governance."
"New U.S. rules apply equally to all companies, large or small. But smaller companies will bear a comparatively bigger burden because, for the most part, they don't have the elaborate corporate structures and support staff of larger companies," said Ms. Stymiest. "The smallest 44 per cent of American companies, with market capitalization of up to $500 million US are a lot better placed to carry the cost of the new rules than the 81 per cent of Canadian companies with a market less than $50 million Canadian.
Ms. Stymiest also touched on the subject of the composition and structure of corporate boards, saying that in Canada, 70 percent of the largest public companies already split the role of CEO and Chairman. "They're not required to. Our guidelines recommend it."
TSX are the initials attached to the core businesses of the TSX Group: Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, TSX Markets and TSX Datalinx. TSX Group operates Canada's two national stock exchanges serving the senior equity and public venture equity markets. TSX Group is headquartered in Toronto and maintains division offices in Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver.
