As the Utility Belt reported last week, Google (GOOG) Finance Canada was scheduled to launch today after a false start. The localized version of Google Finance is indeed available, as signaled in a post by Google engineer (and Canadian) Dion Loy.
Quoting from the post:
One of our top requests has been for localized market information, presented of course in a useful and accessible format. We think Google Finance Canada addresses this by presenting top news and company news from Canadian sources, economic data from the Bank of Canada, multi-currency portfolios, and Canadian equity and mutual fund data. The main Google.com search experience has also been improved with Canadian stock onebox results. But speaking as a Canadian, my favourite feature is the company search that prioritizes Canadian companies (no more typing in Canadian exchange prefixes!).
Google faces plenty of competition in the financial data and information business. The clear leader is Yahoo (YHOO) Finance, which provides more financial data and reference materials. Yahoo already has a localized Canadian site.