LETTERS TO THE EDITOR — Let’s discuss it: securities dealer

I am writing to point out the manner in which the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) and Ontario’s New Democratic Party government handled taxpayers’ dollars in their attempt to create and implement Policy 1.10 (a policy designed to control abuses in the sale of speculative penny stocks; see T.N.M., Oct. 18/93, Sept. 6/93 and Aug. 23/93).

Millions of dollars have been spent and, thus far, all that has been achieved is a loss of shareholder protection and taxpayers’ dollars. The supposed “penny dreadful” problem could have been avoided easily had the OSC-government forces sat down with the Securities Dealers Society of Ontario to hammer out a fair penny stock policy.

A new policy might have been created with no cost to the taxpayer; instead, Judge Blair’s ruling has brought into question all OSC policy statements. Why was no effort made to sit down and come to an agreement? The government’s reaction was to create a task force to study the power and function of the OSC. How much will this cost the taxpayer? The money being used to solve the debate could better be used by the provincial government to help solve much more significant problems.

I call upon the new OSC commissioner and the task force to include members of the Securities Dealers Society of Ontario, and to interact in a quick and frugal manner to come to an agreement and save us all tax dollars. T.E. Manning

Account Executive

E.A. Manning Ltd.

Toronto