TORONTO, April 30, 2026 /CNW/ - The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) today published for comment proposed amendments to its fee rules. The proposed changes are designed to deliver fee relief to most market participants, encourage capital formation, enhance fee predictability, and recalibrate fees to support proportionality amongst market participants.

Under the proposed changes, the small issuers and registrant firms that comprise the majority of entities regulated by the OSC would see reduced fees, with approximately 57% paying the lowest annual participation fee of $750 or less. To encourage capital formation and economic growth, the OSC also proposes to reduce the fee for filing a prospectus by approximately 21%.

The OSC has also reviewed its fee structure with a view to addressing imbalances that have occurred over time. The proposed amendments include an emphasis on proportionality to introduce additional fee tiers to collect higher fees from those market participants whose fees have not increased in many years despite an evolution of the regulatory landscape.

The proposed changes also recalibrate fees for crypto-asset trading platforms, whose fees have not kept pace with the increased level and complexity of regulatory oversight required by the OSC.

The OSC also proposes introducing an annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) based adjustment to participation fee rates for issuers and registrants. In addition, tier thresholds will also be indexed to CPI to ensure fairness and maintain proportionality among market participants.

For a complete overview of the proposed changes, please see the related Notice on the OSC website.

Stakeholders are invited to provide comments in writing by July 29, 2026.

The mandate of the OSC is to provide protection to investors from unfair, improper or fraudulent practices, to foster fair, efficient and competitive capital markets and confidence in the capital markets, to foster capital formation, and to contribute to the stability of the financial system and the reduction of systemic risk. Investors are urged to check the registration of any persons or company offering an investment opportunity and to review the OSC investor materials available at www.osc.ca.

Note to Editors:

• The OSC has not comprehensively amended its fees in over a decade.
• The OSC charges two main types of fees: 
  • Participation fees – cover a broad of services not practicably attributable to individual activities or entities. These fees are intended to serve as a proxy for market participants' use of the Ontario capital markets, and to support oversight activities by the OSC.
  • Activity fees – relate to specific functions and actions, for example, specific filings and request for service.
• Additional details about types of fees charged by the OSC are available on the Fees section of the OSC website.

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SOURCE Ontario Securities Commission