The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) is asking people in the industry to comment on its education program.

For the last ten years, the Canadian Securities Institute (CSI) has been the exclusive provider for IIROC licensing courses and examinations. The service agreement with the CSI is expiring in January of 2016, and IIROC has published a consultation paper in order to determine if this model or another approach would best serve the public interest and meet its regulatory needs.

In the paper, IIROC is asking respondents to comment on the benefits and drawbacks of the existing proficiency education and testing model, and to share their own experiences under CSI's system. Stakeholders are also encouraged to discuss if and how their views of the current education program have been influenced by the cost of the courses.

The consultation paper presents several other education models used elsewhere in the world, and members are asked to comment on the benefits, drawbacks, relevance, and viability of these alternative models, and to share any experiences they may have with these other regimes.

Finally, respondents are asked to discuss the criteria they believe should be used to evaluate education and examination providers.

The comment period is open until November 17, 2014, and the consultation paper can be downloaded from www.iiroc.ca.