SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 215

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 16, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 215 - Jun/16/23
Mr. Patrick Weiler (West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, Lib.)
  • Jun/16/23 10:16:57 a.m.
  • Watch
  • Re: Bill C-42 
Madam Speaker, I rise today to offer a few thoughts on Bill C-42, which proposes amendments to the Canada Business Corporations Act, or CBCA, and would make consequential changes to other statutes to create a federal beneficial ownership registry. This registry would be, arguably, the most important tool we could utilize to better detect, deter and prosecute money laundering, tax evasion, fraud and terrorist-financing activities. First of all, I want to congratulate all members of the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology for their hard work. They studied a bill with more than 20 clauses, dealing with a highly complex subject matter, and heard from numerous stakeholders who represent a spectrum of views. Among other factors, the committee heard that the interoperability of the registry is a key concern and is, in fact, a key ingredient to the success of a pan-Canadian beneficial ownership registry. Certain witnesses appearing before committee emphasized the need to ensure adequate alignment, both domestically and internationally. The need for this is obvious, given the transnational nature of organized crime and the complexity and sophistication with which actors can conceal the true owners of different assets. We need to be able to work together to counter this. Interoperability has many dimensions, but it generally means that Canada not only respects international best practices on thresholds and uses the best available data standard but is also similarly aligned with domestic best practices. Thus, provinces are enticed to join a pan-Canadian registry and information can be shared seamlessly to trace illicit activities across jurisdictions. That is why Canada has adopted the beneficial ownership open data standard, which is an internationally accepted open standard for modelling and publishing information on the beneficial ownership and control of companies. It is used for collecting, sharing and using data on beneficial ownership. Canada's use of this standard would ensure that our registry could communicate and speak using the same technical language as beneficial ownership registries around the world do, as well as communicating with our provincial and territorial partners. The standard would also mandate that corporations provide information about individuals who have significant ownership stakes and control in any corporation, thereby empowering law enforcement, the CRA, banks, journalists and the general public to accurately ascertain the true owners of any given company. This will help prevent criminals from using anonymous, numbered corporations, or shell companies, which are sometimes spread across multiple jurisdictions as a shield to conceal the true owners of companies. Furthermore, I want to highlight the work of the committee in increasing the maximum penalties for those found to have failed to comply with the legislation, with fines now up to $1 million. This will ensure that there is a sufficient deterrent effect for individuals frustrating the important purpose of the legislation. The provinces and territories have a major role to play here, because the vast majority of companies are in fact incorporated provincially. That is why I am pleased to see my home province of British Columbia taking a leadership role in response to widespread allegations of money laundering in the province. B.C. has tabled legislation to create its own beneficial ownership registry for corporations, and it has already created a beneficial land ownership registry, which is now in effect. It is easy to see why action is important. A 2018 report estimated that money laundering has played a role in increasing housing prices by approximately 5% in British Columbia. The lack of knowledge regarding the true owners of over half of the top 100 most-expensive properties in B.C. not only worsens the problem of housing affordability but also raises further concerns about potential tax evasion related to the treatment of principal residences. Furthermore, clear ties have been made between money laundering and the devastating health crisis we are facing in B.C., the opioid epidemic, where illicit funds garnered from the sale of fentanyl and other illegal drugs are laundered through real estate and other opaque means, contributing to the problem. That is why, in addition to Canada's adoption of the beneficial ownership open data standard, the federal government has worked and continues to work alongside its provincial and territorial counterparts to continue to move the needle ahead on ensuring beneficial ownership transparency in Canada. This collaboration began at the officials level in 2016 and was formalized in a 2017 agreement among federal, provincial and territorial finance ministers. They agreed, in principle, to pursue legislative amendments to their respective corporate statutes that would require corporations to hold accurate and up-to-date information on beneficial owners, as well as to eliminate the use of bearer shares. In 2019, finance ministers further agreed to “cooperate on initiating consultations on making beneficial ownership information more transparent through initiatives such as aligning access through public registries, while respecting jurisdictional responsibilities with respect to corporations.” The ongoing collaboration has resulted in, among other things, the majority of the provinces making amendments to their corporate statutes to create and maintain a beneficial ownership registry of their individuals with significant control. These amendments largely emulated the 2019 legislative amendments made to the CBCA. This means that, for most businesses operating in Canada, there will be information available on their beneficial owners. Our ongoing collaboration with the provinces has also culminated in the establishment of a common platform called the multi-jurisdictional registry access service, or MRAS for short. MRAS is a common front-end portal that provides access to all the corporate registries in the country. It was a project adopted many years ago among the provinces, the territories and the federal government, and it represents one of the options to build on in creating a pan-Canadian registry. Our efforts to harmonize federal and provincial beneficial ownership regimes are an ongoing initiative. To illustrate this, it is notable that, on June 5, Minister Champagne and Deputy Prime Minister Freeland sent a joint letter to their respective provincial and territorial ministerial counterparts, asking them to once again join the federal government's effort to create a pan-Canadian beneficial ownership registry and seeking specifically to understand each—
1025 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border