Consumer Advisory Panel | Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario

The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) is committed to protecting the public interest, and safeguarding public confidence and trust, in financial services in Ontario. The Consumer Advisory Panel is an important part of delivering on this commitment.

The Panel provides a consumer perspective on proposed FSRA policy changes and advises FSRA’s Consumer Office in serving as the voice of the consumer within FSRA. The Panel provides input and helps to inform FSRA’s strategic approach and related activities, including consumer-based research, policy support and consumer outreach. It helps ensure that the perspectives of consumers (including pension beneficiaries, credit union members and the general public) inform our direction and decisions, a key priority for FSRA.

Terms of reference

The Terms of Reference for the Consumer Advisory Panel guide the panel and its members in the execution of their duties.

Panel membership

The Members of the Consumer Advisory Panel bring extensive leadership and experience in representing consumer interests in Ontario and Canada. Membership represents a cross-section of perspectives and backgrounds from across the financial services sector.

New Members

Harvey Naglie

Mr. Naglie is a member of OBSI's Consumer and Investor Advisory Council. He has been involved in Ontario's financial services sector for over 40 years, working in both the public and private sector, including as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Ontario Ministry of Finance's Financial Services Policy Division.

Julie Kuzmic

Ms. Kuzmic started her career in consulting at Accenture, then migrated to the financial services arena where she has spent the past 15+ years leading complex IT, sales and product launch initiatives across the banking, insurance and wealth management industries.

Since joining Equifax Canada in 2016, Ms. Kuzmic has become a recognized authority in consumer credit. She has served as an expert witness on credit scores in provincial court, and she often speaks to industry groups, government, clients and consumers to shed light on Canada's credit ecosystem. In her role as senior compliance officer, consumer advocacy with Equifax Canada, she helps Canadians build credit confidence. She is additionally responsible for working across business units and corporate functions to ensure fair treatment of consumers in compliance with applicable legislation.

Kristina Booi

Ms. Booi is a Commercial Insurance Advisor and Life Insurance Advisor, with a history in tax planning, law, and banking. With a Financial Planning Designation, LLQP, and CAIB, she lends a varied perspective to consumer needs and cross-sectoral policy. She believes that communication at all levels is imperative in enacting positive change. As a commercial insurance advisor, protecting the consumer, educating them, and building relationships through listening are top of mind.

Krysta Nesbitt

Ms. Nesbitt is a Certified Financial Planner, Life Insurance Advisor, and Responsible Investment Specialist. She also spent 15 years in a successful career at a major Canadian bank. She is a Public Advisory Council member for the Health Data Research Network, and a Patient Partner with the University Health Network. Krysta helps to shape the future of the financial planning profession by writing and grading exams for FP Canada and focuses on how behavioral finance concepts can help clients understand their financial biases leading to better financial health.

Lucy Becker

Ms. Becker is a retired public affairs executive with extensive regulatory experience having served on the senior leadership teams at the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and the Law Society of Upper Canada (now Ontario).

Throughout her career, she also worked in the Ontario public service at various ministries including the Attorney General and Financial Institutions, which at the time oversaw the insurance, pension, and securities commissions. Since retiring in 2021, she has been appointed as a Public Member to the governing council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) and the Board of Directors for the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO). She was subsequently appointed by the CPSO Council to serve as an adjudicator with the Ontario Physicians and Surgeons Discipline Tribunal (OPSDT) and as a member of the Fitness to Practice Committee.

A journalist by training, she is a passionate advocate for consumer rights, particularly seniors and the vulnerable, and ensuring that the consumer voice is captured in policy development. She is also deeply committed to access to justice and is a Director of the Don Valley Community Legal Services, a legal aid clinic serving one of the largest communities in the City of Toronto.

Zahir Dharsee

Mr. Dharsee was a Manager in the Supervision and Regulation Group with the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) Canada.

He has over 30 years of extensive knowledge and experience in the Supervision and conducting Risk based Examinations of various Financial Institutions regulated by OSFI.

As part of executing the OSFI Supervision and Examination Frameworks and Processes, he was also responsible for reviewing and ensuring Compliance with various regulatory requirements for the Consumers of Life and Property and Casualty Insurance companies and the Banking, Trust and Loan and Credit Union Deposit Taking Institutions.

He started his career in the Federal Public Service with the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. He has a BA (Economics and History) from York University, Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Finance) from the University of Windsor. He is a Chartered Public Accountant (CPA) and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). He is currently pursuing a master's degree in history at York University.

Existing Members

Sharon Altman-Leamen

Ms. Altman-Leamen is a Director of the Canadian Federation of Pensioners and a member of its advocacy team. She is also the co-founder and Senior Vice President of Yellow Pages Pensioners Group. Her focus is protecting the pensions and benefits of active and retired members of Defined Benefit Plans in Canada, especially with regard to underfunded pension plans that have in some cases ended up in windup, due to bankruptcies or insolvencies.

Kristian Bonn

Mr. Bonn is the Vice President (and future President) of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, focused on advocating for the rights of those who have suffered injury and losses as the result of wrongdoing by others. As a law partner at Bonn Law Office Professional Corporation, he represents individuals involved in auto insurance disputes, property insurance claims and other civil matters.

Anish Chopra

Mr. Chopra has over 20 years of experience interacting with clients of all backgrounds across a variety of wealth channels from investment advisors to financial advisors to institutional and retail investors. He was Chair of the CFA Society of Toronto and has served on the Board of Directors of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) Canada, the Canadian Accounting Standards Board, and as a community member on the Ontario Judicial Council.

Rhona DesRoches

Ms. DesRoches is the Chair of the Board of FAIR Association of Victims for Accident Insurance Reform. She has extensive experience in the insurance industry from a consumer perspective, preparing and presenting materials to government, regulators and other stakeholders for the past 25 years with a particular focus on accident victims.

Hitesh Doshi

Professor Doshi is at Ryerson University. He served as the Chair of the Consumer Advisory Council of Tarion, Ontario’s New Home Warranty Program, and of the City of Toronto’s Technical Advisory Group on Green Roofs. He is focused on providing a well-researched and effectively-communicated consumer perspective to Regulatory Authorities.

Roger Gauthier

Mr. Gauthier has extensive knowledge and experience in the credit unions sector at the local, provincial and national levels. He served on the Forum de Concertation de Desjardins, a national advisory panel, until December 2019. He is a Board member of the Fédération des caisses populaires de l’Ontario and of several credit unions/cooperatives. He works to ensure that financial institution and insurance providers remain strong and solid and that consumers are protected from loss should these providers fail.

Harold Geller

Mr. Geller is a lawyer who helps investors and the insured get what their financial advisors promised them. He is a member of the Ontario Securities Commission’s Senior Expert Advisory Group and the Ombudsman of Banking and Investment’s Consumer and Investor Advisory Council. He serves on the Executive Committees on Elder Law for both the Canadian and Ontario Bar Associations, and on the Canadian Bar Association’s Executive Committee on Insurance Law.

Laura Tamblyn Watts

Ms. Tamblyn Watts is a public policy lawyer with 20 years of expertise in the aging, financial, disability and consumer sectors. She founded and was the National Director of the Canadian Centre for Elder Law, and the Chief Public Policy Officer at CARP. She recently founded CanAge, a new non-profit voice for seniors in Canada. She has extensive experience in banking, securities, regulatory and law reform in the consumer and financial sectors. She teaches at the University of Toronto in the Institute for LifeCourse and Aging, and the Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

Meeting summaries

The Consumer Advisory Panel will meet up to six times a year (minimum of two meetings). FSRA will publish, on this webpage, a high-level summary of the Panel’s work within approximately three weeks of each Panel meeting.

2021

2020

Annual reports

According to the Panel’s Terms of Reference, the Panel must oversee the production of an annual report by the Consumer Office outlining the key activities of the Panel.