Bonnie Lysyk, former auditor general of Ontario, has been named executive vice-president of enforcement at the Ontario Securities Commission.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Canada’s largest securities watchdog has a new top enforcer.
Bonnie Lysyk, former auditor-general of Ontario, started with the Ontario Securities Commission on Monday as executive vice-president of enforcement. She replaces Jeff Kehoe, who left the OSC in February after overseeing its division since 2016.
Ms. Lysyk joins the OSC at a challenging time for Canadian securities enforcement. In July, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that financial criminals can avoid paying punitive fines levied by market regulators by going through the bankruptcy process. That decision removed a key enforcement tool from regulators’ arsenal, experts said at the time.
Ms. Lysyk is also inheriting a smaller team than the one managed by her predecessor. At the time of Mr. Kehoe’s departure, the headcount of the OSC enforcement division was roughly 175, but the current headcount is roughly 140, OSC spokesperson Andy McNair-West said in an email. Mr. McNair-West said Ms. Lysyk was not available for an interview on Monday.
Ms. Lysyk was Ontario’s provincial auditor for 10 years from 2013 to 2023. During that time, she completed 168 reports on issues ranging from homelessness to autism programs to hydro prices, though her tenure was bookended by two bombshell investigations.
In 2013, Ms. Lysyk found the decision of Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government to cancel two natural gas-fired power plants in Mississauga and Oakville cost taxpayers more than $1-billion, despite initial estimates from the province putting the cost at just $40-million.
Last year, just one month before the end of her term, Ms. Lysyk found the decision of Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford’s government to carve out land from the protected Greenbelt was heavily influenced by a small group of real estate developers who stood to personally benefit.
Her report found that Ryan Amato, former chief of staff to former provincial housing minister Steve Clark, led a process that resulted in 15 parcels of land being removed from the Greenbelt area surrounding the Greater Toronto Area, creating a potential windfall of more than $8-billion for a small group of private developers. Mr. Clark resigned from cabinet following the publication of Ms. Lysyk’s report.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Lysyk said in a November, 2020, report that Mr. Ford’s handling of the crisis was “disorganized and inconsistent.”
Originally from Winnipeg, Ms. Lysyk studied at the University of Manitoba before starting her career as a chartered accountant with a firm that was later acquired by PricewaterhouseCoopers. She has spent most of her career as an auditor, having served as chief audit officer at the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission, deputy auditor-general of Manitoba and auditor-general of Saskatchewan.