Quebec Justice Minister Stephanie Vallee responds to Opposition questions, Thursday, June 11, 2015 at the legislature in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques BoissinotJacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
Quebec's challenge to the latest attempt at a pan-Canadian securities regulatory agency is a needless gesture. The provincial government is referring the proposal to the Quebec Court of Appeal, claiming this bit of federal-provincial co-operation is unconstitutional.
In 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada, dredging up old clichés of Canadian constitutional law, made it almost impossible for Canada to have an effective national capital-markets regulator like those in other developed countries. The court did leave a little room for a national body that would protect the markets against "systemic risk" – that is, to deal with emergencies.
Since then, an effort has been made to pick up the pieces. There is a plan for willing provinces to join with the federal government in a co-operative agency applying harmonized regulations. The new scheme is voluntary, though the larger provinces, together with Ottawa, would naturally carry more weight.
Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Yukon have joined in this project, and Nova Scotia seems to be on the verge. Newfoundland's and Manitoba's views are yet unknown.
In the past, Alberta and Quebec have been the least willing to join a national securities regulator. Some members of the legal profession in those provinces may have feared losing business. But the new NDP government in Alberta may not be quite as chummy with the corporate bar, and Premier Rachel Notley and her colleagues have many other things on their minds.
Which leaves Quebec. Early this month, the province's ministers of justice, finance and intergovernmental affairs – Stéphanie Vallée, Carlos Leitao and Jean-Marc Fournier – announced they would litigate. It's not surprising that the government of Quebec doesn't want to join. But nobody's forcing it to.
The Liberal Couillard government can be suspected of trying to prove that they're not too soft on "the rest of Canada" – in contrast to the Parti Québécois and Coalition Avenir Québec. The court proceeding will be a waste of time. Let the co-operators co-operate.