Canada's Tories Push Trudeau to Regulate Crypto in Bid to Lure Investment

A Conservative lawmaker wants Justin Trudeau’s government to start taking cryptocurrency seriously, recommending his finance minister begin setting up a national regulatory system.

The proposal by Michelle Rempel Garner is Canada’s first legislative foray into the increasingly popular asset class. Though the nation “should be attracting billions of dollars of investment in this fast-growing industry,” it’s instead losing talent to Europe and the U.S., she said in a statement

A so-called private member’s bill, the law Rempel Garner’s proposed Wednesday has a low probability of being adopted by the government. But it comes on the heels of a similar call from a top finance executive.

Mike Katchen, chief executive and co-founder of Wealthsimple Financial Inc., told a business luncheon last month Canadian policy makers should “plant a flag” on crypto as part of their efforts to diversity the nation’s resource-heavy economy. 

directs the finance minister to develop a “national framework” in consultation with industry experts that focuses in part on “lowering barriers to entry into the cryptoasset sector while protecting those working in the sector and minimizing the administrative burden.”