More must be done to protect senior’s pensions

Howard Hampton, MPP

I strongly believe much more can and must be done immediately to protect the savings and pensions of our citizens.
First, to effectively safeguard peoples’ investments, Ontario must clamp down on the accounting profession, which has been responsible for the Enron type frauds that made the life savings and pensions of ordinary investors disappear. To give investors real protection, public auditors must no longer be allowed to regulate and police themselves. For far too long, accounting standards and enforcement have been closed shops run by the profession.
I have urged the Provincial government to end self-regulation in the accounting profession and end the practice of accountants writing and enforcing their own rules. The Ontario government must establish an independent, provincially funded Public Accounting Board to investigate and discipline public auditors who violate professional standards. There would be no accounting industry funding of the board so that true public oversight can be maintained.
Remarkably, Ontario investors have even less protection now in securities law than investors had in the scandal-plagued United States before the Americans tightened their rules. The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) simply doesn’t have the tools to do its job properly to protect investors.
The OSC can’t even levy administrative fines against those who break the law. This must change.
Board directors of publicly traded companies must also be held responsible for the accuracy of the information contained in financial statements.
Currently, directors may only be sued for misleading information in a
prospectus for an Initial Public Offering (IPO). But 94 per cent of trading activity is done separately from an IPO. Laws must change to ensure board members’ legal liability to all quarterly and fiscal year-end financial statements.
Ontario Conservatives have a golden opportunity now to take the NDP’s No Enrons in Ontario and use it to ensure the utmost protection for everyone’s life savings. See the details of our plan at www.abrighteridea.ca.