Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Today, I am presenting division 6 of part 4 of the bill, which amends the Canada Business Corporations Act, or CBCA, to force corporations to collect and hold information on their effective properties, that is to say the individuals who in the final analysis own and control the enterprises.
I'll be speaking about changes to the Canada Business Corporation Act, with a perspective to beneficial ownership and transparency.
Very quickly, this relates back to a bunch of work we have been doing with the federal, provincial and territorial groups of corporate registries and tax officials, following budget 2017 commitments to increase transparency of beneficial ownership information.
Budget 2018 codified that, by highlighting the agreement of federal, provincial and territorial finance ministers in December 2017, which committed all provinces, territories and the federal government to increase measures of beneficial ownership transparency by July of 2019. In the first instance, they were to do so by amending their corporate statute to require private corporations to hold beneficial ownership information of those possessing more than 25% or control, in fact, of a private corporation. They were also to do so by binding directors and officers of the corporation to pursue best efforts to assemble that registry, to hold it in their corporate books and to provide penalties in place where that was not followed.
This is part of our international commitment related to money laundering, tax evasion and terrorist financing. We're doing so, in recognition of the shared jurisdiction that is incorporation in Canada, by working together with our provincial and territorial colleagues to bring these changes into effect.
With that, I am happy to take any questions.