The Supreme Court of Canada returned their reference decision on the constitutionality of the proposed national securities regulator yesterday, and it was a unanimous green light – because this is a voluntary system, it’s constitutional. You may recall that a previous attempt to create such a national regulator to be imposed by the federal government was found to be unconstitutional, and lo, it didn’t happen. When the previous Conservative government constructed this new voluntary model, Quebec appealed to the SCC, and as we can see, didn’t win the day. And even with this decision, Quebec still says they’re still going to stick with their provincial regulator, thank you very much, and that’s that.

There are a few things to think about in this decision, and in the system as it’s being designed. One of them is that part of the mechanism that makes it acceptable to the Supreme Court is that the regulatory authority is being delegated to a council of ministers, but that may come with more challenges. Because the wait for this decision essentially stalled the work of the new regulatory body, it remains to be seen as to how long it will take to get the new system up and running.

While Andrew Coyne makes the point that this system really makes no sense because it’s not able to deal with the issue of systemic risk, it may be worse than that. I wrote about this proposal for Law Times back in the spring, and even proponents of the national regulator had started to sour on the concept because the proposed system as it was being built essentially let provinces maintain their own particular carve-outs, which increases the complexity and reduces the uniformity of the system across the country. Even more alarming, according to one lawyer I spoke with, is the fact that this sets up a system that is unaccountable, that makes up and enforces its own rules and is self-funding, which seems to go against most good governance norms. So we’ll see where this goes, but the final result certainly looks to be far less than what was initially promised.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau will mark the 100^thanniversary of the Armistice at Vimy Ridge and Paris (before heading to Singapore).
• Here’s a look at what some businesses are asking of Bill Morneau in advance of the autumn economic update to help them cope with the steel and aluminium tariffs.
• Despite it being a campaign promise for immediate action, the government is yet again delaying firearms marking regulations.
• An American federal court halted the Keystone XL pipeline construction yet again pending yet more environmental assessments.
• Here’s another look at federal and provincial C/conservatives teaming up to try and fight carbon pricing.
• More details about Tony Clement’s activities continue to emerge: not telling his whip about extortion, previous incidents (and more), and his security clearance.
• An alleged white supremacist who was disavowed by the UCP in Alberta also signed up for Maxime Bernier’s party. Because of course he did.
• Colby Cosh looks to the defeated ballot initiative in Washington state about imposing a carbon tax, and what it says about the politics of it.
• Chris Selley casts a critical eye on the restrictions around harm reduction and safe injection sites in Ontario, and how the objections become indefensible.
• My weekend column takes issue with those who think that Cabinets shouldn’t be “hand-picked” by first ministers. Because Responsible Government.

Programming Note:I’m taking Monday off of blogging. See you next week!

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.