41 people signed the petition since September 18, 2009

Alberta Finance Minister

Why can investment brokers violate the law? Alberta Finance Minister Iris Evans will not say.  But she will allow it.

More than a billion dollars of substandard investments have been sold in Alberta, with the permission of the Alberta Securities Commission. (ASC).  In Canada $32 billion has gone missing with bad commercial paper alone.  

The cost of  every other crime in the country is approx $40 bil according to Justice Canada, so we have one single financial crime equalling nearly every other crime in Canada combined.  

Legal exemptions have allowed substandard investments and advice to be sold by the thousands to Canadians, without notice being sent to the investors.  

Examples include Concrete Equities, ABCP,  house brand mutual funds, Limited partnerships, Income Trusts, I stopped reading names when I got to over 1000 legal exemptions since 2006.  Ponzi schemes appear to be the only investment in Canada which have not yet received permission to violate our laws.   Banks and mutual funds pay a fee and get “permission” every day. Does the public know any of this?  Should they be told?

The questions unanswered by Iris Evans after five requests:

-What public interest is served by allowing financial laws to be violated?  

-Why are laws allowed to be broken without public input and public notice?

-Why is Alberta Finance suppressing this, rather than protecting the public?

Here is the answer received to date from the Alberta Finance:

“In this particular situation (ABCP) it appears the commissions carefully considered the situation and acted properly in granting the exemptions.”

Here is the official reason given by the ASC:

“Each of the Decision Makers is satisfied that the test contained in the Legislation that provides the Decision Maker with the jurisdiction to make the decision has been met.”

There is a damaging incestuous relationship between the financial services industry and our government securities regulator. Our Minister of Finance should be moving forcefully towards honest accountability. 

I ask for a commission of inquiry.   

In the event that this is not possible from our Finance Minister, then I must respectfully ask that she resign.

These matters have caused billions of dollars to be siphoned out of our economy assisted by 13 securities commissions.   They will continue to do so unless corrective action is taken.  Our province can no longer afford the type of help that is coming from this Ministry.  Contact the writer at lelford@shaw.ca if you would like to add your name in support.

Larry Elford
103 - 7 A Ave South
Lethbridge AB
403 393-4742

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