OSC and MPP for Nipissing highlight importance of financial literacy during Ontario Seniors Month

NORTH BAY – Vic Fedeli, Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Nipissing, today joined the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) and North Bay community partners at an ‘OSC in the Community’ seminar in North Bay, to provide local seniors with information on avoiding fraud and making informed investing decisions. Fedeli discussed the importance of financial literacy and praised the OSC for visiting Ontario communities to speak to everyday investors about how to protect their money.

Fedeli highlighted how the government’s title protection initiative will give seniors – and all Ontarians – confidence that their financial advisor and planner have an appropriate level of training and education. He also spoke about how guidance, published earlier today by Canadian securities regulators will help seniors, by giving those who work with them in a financial capacity best practices for serving elderly investors and recognizing signs of potential fraud.

“Our government is working to ensure seniors have the support, resources and confidence they need to achieve greater financial security,” said Fedeli. “Financial literacy is important for all Ontarians in their everyday lives, whether it’s youth learning the basics or seniors transitioning to retirement.  It is also important when it comes to understanding our public finances so we can protect what matters most and maintain critical services for our children and grandchildren.”

The government’s broader initiative to support seniors includes working closely with the OSC on financial literacy initiatives and building on the OSC’s seniors strategy. First introduced in a staff notice in 2018, the OSC’s strategy sets out a series of targeted policy, operational, research, educational and outreach initiatives it will pursue to support Ontario seniors.

“The OSC’s vision is a stronger and more secure financial future for all Ontario seniors,” said Tyler Fleming, Director of the Investor Office at the OSC. “By providing tools and resources for both the financial industry and investors, and with the support of our government, we can help achieve this goal.”

The OSC would like to thank the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Elder Abuse Prevention Ontario, the City of North Bay and the North Bay Police Service for their participation in today’s event.

OSC in the Community is an outreach program that takes the OSC’s important regulatory mandate from Bay Street to Main Street in communities across Ontario. OSC in the Community events give audience members an opportunity to ask OSC staff questions, learn about money topics and get tips on protecting their money from investment fraud. In 2018-19, OSC staff presented to investors in 79 different community seminars across Ontario.

 

For more information on attending or registering for these events, visit the OSC in the Community Events web page. In addition, our consumer website GetSmarterAboutMoney.ca is one of Canada’s most-visited financial literacy websites and has hundreds of free tools, calculators and other resources for people to help them with their money.

The mandate of the OSC is to provide protection to investors from unfair, improper or fraudulent practices, to foster fair and efficient capital markets and confidence in the capital markets, 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.

 

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