Law360 Canada ( November 9, 2018, 1:42 PM EST) -- Appeals by the Attorney General of Canada, Attorney General of British Columbia and Attorney General of Quebec from a judgment of the Quebec Court of Appeal in the matter of a reference concerning the constitutionality of the implementation of pan Canadian securities regulation. At issue was the constitutionality of a recent proposal by the federal government and the governments of Ontario, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Yukon to implement a national cooperative capital markets regulatory system (Cooperative System) as set out in an agreement (Memorandum). The proposed Cooperative System was built on the guidance provided by the Supreme Court in a previous reference. It included a model provincial and territorial statute (Model Provincial Act) that dealt primarily with the day-to-day aspects of the securities trade and a federal statute (Draft Federal Act) that was aimed at preventing and managing systemic risk and that established criminal offences and a national securities regulator. A Council of Ministers also played an important role in the overall operation of the Cooperative System. The two questions raised by the reference were whether the Cooperative System, as set out in the Memorandum, was constitutional and whether the proposed federal securities legislation fell within Parliament’s jurisdiction over trade and commerce. The majority of the Quebec Court of Appeal concluded that the Cooperative System was unconstitutional. It held that the Draft Federal Act was within Parliament’s jurisdiction over the general branch of the trade and commerce power. However, it concluded that since ss. 76 to 79 of the Draft Federal Act required that all regulations made by the Authority pursuant to the Draft Federal Act be approved by the Council of Ministers, they would render the Act unconstitutional as a whole if they were not removed from it. The Attorney General of Canada appealed the opinion on both questions. The Attorney General of British Columbia appealed on the first, while the Attorney General of Quebec appealed on the second only....