These are broad issues that should be addressed at a seminar, but I will try to be as brief as possible.
There are dozens of lax jurisdictions, and they each have a specialty. Different approaches are taken in Guernesey, Liberia, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Marshall Islands. Each lax jurisdiction creates, within its legal framework, ways for powerful outside players to benefit from a laissez-faire attitude.
There is something I call hybrid lax jurisdictions. The countries involved are constitutional states that have "offshored" part of their legislation. I am referring to the Netherlands, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Delaware in the United States, and Austria. Canada, in a way, developed legislation that created a real regulatory haven for the global mining industry. The odds are three out of four that a mining company is Canadian because 75% of global mining companies are Canadian. The companies are not always created using Canadian capital. International investors establish a structure in Canada to operate mines abroad in order to benefit from our liberal legislation. A commission of inquiry should be created to look into the matter. I discussed it my book Noir Canada and in another book that I wrote with William Sacher, Paradis sous terre.
The first step is to start dismantling a few things. Under subsection 5907(11) of the Income Tax Regulations, when Canada signs a tax information exchange agreement with a tax haven, Canadian businesses can transfer assets to the tax haven and transfer the assets back tax-free in the form of dividends. Canada has been completely integrated into this system.
The free trade agreement between Canada and Panama should also be discussed. Panama is one of the world's top launderers of drug trafficking funds. By signing a free trade agreement, Canada is encouraging bilateral trade. Clearly Canada, while claiming to fight the problem, is sometimes complicit in it.