It is a good thing, and cut down on some fraud, although many of the Canadians involved in these pump and dump schemes just get front-men or dupes to be officers and directors, and set up off-shore corporations to hold the stock and/or conduct any transactions.
It has been about 3 years since Ontario made the decision they would not be included under the instrument, and I really don't remember the specific reasons they gave, but I seem to recall they determined that non-reporting companies were not much of a problem in Ontario and the law was too much trouble. At the time, that may have been somewhat true, as there was no doubt most of the offenders were in B.C. and Alberta, but we saw what happens when one area institutes the law and another doesn't, the criminal activity quickly migrates to the area without the enforcement. That happened when B.C. first passed the law and the criminals moved to Alberta - at least on paper. Most of the people involved were still located in B.C., but opened virtual offices in Alberta to evade the law.
Although Quebec did ostensibly did implement the law, they added so many exemptions that it effectively has absolutely no application in Quebec. That means the two most populous provinces are effectively not included.
