Canada's provincial securities regulators put on hold Friday plans to change the country's corporate governance rules.

Corporate governance refers to the regulations that compel corporate directors to ensure managers protect the interests of shareholders.

Corporate governance deals with issues such as executive bonuses. (CBC)

An example would be the rules under which executives receive bonuses. The Canadian Securities Administrators announced in Dec. 2008 plans to revise the rules but have now reversed course, saying several companies said they were too busy dealing with the financial crisis.

The CSA was considering moving toward what's called a "principles-based" approach. This means moving away from hard-and-fast rules about the conduct of managers and toward practices that conform to community expectations about ethics. Such principles tend to become more demanding over time.

"Based on the comments received, we do not intend to implement the proposal as originally published. We do not believe that now is the right time to make such changes," said Jean St-Gelais, CSA chair. "We are reconsidering whether to recommend any changes to the corporate governance regime."

Any changes now won't take effect before 2011 at the earliest.

The CSA, the council of the securities regulators of Canada's provinces and territories, co-ordinates and harmonizes regulation for the Canadian capital markets.