REFILE-Canada to push toward single securities watchdog

(Refiles to fix typo in headline)

By Randall Palmer

OTTAWA, March 11 (Reuters) - Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty pledged on Tuesday to press ahead with the idea of a single, national securities regulator, despite provincial foot-dragging and opposition from Quebec separatists.

"We have a capital-markets regulatory system that is out of step with the Western world," Flaherty said during parliamentary debate on a Bloc Quebecois motion calling on the government to "immediately abandon" the concept.

"We are the only industrialized country that does not have a common securities regulator. Our system of 13 regulators is cumbersome, fragmented and it lacks the proper tools of enforcement."

The Bloc, which advocates independence for Quebec, jealously seeks to guard the prerogatives of the largely French-speaking province and believes the common securities regulator would step on provincial toes.

"The Conservative government and especially the current finance minister seem to have an obsession with removing important Quebec rights in financial administration and regrouping them in Toronto," the Bloc's Paul Crete told the House of Commons.

He said his opinion was backed by all of Quebec, including the Liberal provincial government, which opposes Quebec independence.

Canada's 10 provinces and three northern territories each have their own regulatory regimes.