Saskatchewan is signing on to the federal government’s plan for a national securities regulator.

The decision, along with a similar commitment from New Brunswick, gives Ottawa sufficient provincial support to proceed with a national securities regulator, marking a major step forward after about eight years of mostly frustration.

Justice Minister Gord Wyant said Saskatchewan is joining the effort because of the benefits to investors and businesses.

“I am proud of the work we have done to ensure that Saskatchewan’s needs continue to be met, while strengthening Canada’s regulatory system,” Wyant said in a news release.

The province will maintain its regulatory offices in Regina and add a deputy chief regulator responsible for a territory including Saskatchewan. The Regina offices will  make day-to-day decisions to meet the needs of investors and local industry, the government said.

Federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver made the announcement Wednesday morning that Saskatchewan and New Brunswick are joining Ontario and British Columbia in committing to the national regulator.

The four provinces represent about 55 per cent of the value of capital markets, officials say.

That still leaves six provinces out of the scheme -- with Alberta and Quebec the key hold-outs -- but officials say they continue to make attempts to bring others into the national body.

The government says it plans to issue initial draft regulations for public comment on the co-operative legislation involving the four provinces by Dec. 19.

By the end of next June, the plan is to have the four provinces enact legislation affirming the deal and for the joint Capital Markets Regulator to be operational by the fall of 2015.

Ian Russell of the Investment Industry Association of Canada says unanimity is not required as long as Ottawa obtains a sufficient critical mass to create momentum for the new office, which would be charged with regulating and policing financial markets in Canada.

"Once it starts becoming operational it will make all the difference in the world because those provinces that are on the fringe are going to have to make a decision," he said.

"You suddenly are introducing a uniform securities act with detailed regulations ... that will encompass at least 50 or 60 per cent of the Canadian capital markets. It will only be a short matter of time before most of the other provinces will come in because there's too many efficiencies to gain by coming in and too much efficiencies lost by staying out."

The proposal has had the support of Canada's business and financial community, as well as international bodies such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, since it was first proposed by the late Jim Flaherty in 2006.

The government argues that Canada's current system, with 13 separate regulators and commissions across the country, is Byzantine, inefficient and -- despite co-operation through what is called a "passport system" -- difficult to police for abuses and securities fraud.

But Ontario, where Canada's largest stock market is located, was the only province to agree with the initiative and several provinces threatened to take Ottawa to court if it proceeded.

In 2011, the Supreme Court sided with the provinces on the main question of jurisdiction, while leaving the door open to federal-provincial co-operation and adding that the federal government had an interest in preventing systemic risk to the financial system.

Russell said a national or common regulator would do more than oversee stock markets. The office would also police debt markets, oversee institutional traders, high-frequency traders, new bond and equity issues and disclosure, relationships between investment advisers and their clients, "and for the first time we will have a regulator that will represent Canada internationally," he noted.

-with CTV Saskatoon files