Finance Committee on May 9th, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Good, if it's one final—

[Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Liberal, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I have one final thing.

I'm interested in the additional costs to small corporations under provincial jurisdiction. Let's say you're from the Philippines and you're working hard, and all of a sudden you have to have....

I believe there are additional reporting requirements with FINTRAC, correct?

[Lisa Pezzack]

The reporting requirements already exist.

[Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Liberal, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Oh, they already exist. So there's no additional requirements for these unregulated—

[Lisa Pezzack]

The unregulated trusts would be a new one, but in any type of new legislation or regulation in this area, we have to balance the national security and trust against the—

[Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Liberal, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

What would be the additional costs for some of these corporations? Some of them are probably very small because they're not under federal jurisdiction, they're under provincial jurisdiction. With regard to these trusts, what would be the final costs on the ground for someone, and what would be the impact?

[Maxime Beaupré]

I think what you are referring to your allusion to the Philippines are the money services businesses. People in Canada may remit money abroad and use these services for that. We are not increasing reporting requirements on these types of businesses under this legislation. The change we are making for trusts is only.... The vast majority of trust companies in Canada are already regulated under the act. We only expanded it to clarify that we're also covering a certain type of trust that operates in a different way.

[Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Liberal, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Could you give a final example of that type of trust and what they do?

[Maxime Beaupré]

As is indicated under the act in the current wording, in the case of trusts that are regulated in Canada, they are covered by the obligations of the act. Through exchanges with the industry and international assessments, questions were raised as to whether trusts that are incorporated in Canada but not regulated in Canada were covered by the legislation. Here, we are clarifying that they are indeed covered by the legislation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thanks to all of you.

If you're still not clear on it, we can come back to you in a moment, but we need to stay on the budget implementation act if we can.

Mr. Sorbara, and then Mr. Fergus.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

I'll pass for now. Thank you, sir.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Mr. Fergus.

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Thank you very much, and welcome to the House of Commons.

My question follows on the ones my colleague Mr. Ouellette asked about the frequency of communication between FINTRAC and the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces.

How often does FINTRAC communicate information to these federal institutions or groups?

[Lisa Pezzack]

Well, with the new provision, it's pretty hard to tell how often they would have information that would meet the two tests. I would think that as a sort of context-setting piece, they would probably have an initial discussion to set out what your concerns are and what kind of information would be useful to you. It's very hard to tell at this point without—

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

What is the current frequency? Is there one?

[Lisa Pezzack]

No, there isn't one.

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Okay.

[Lisa Pezzack]

No.

[Maxime Beaupré]

To the extent that it involves two federal institutions, there may be contact. However, the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces are not groups that collect information under the act at this time, and there is no formal communication of information that is protected by law.

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

If you obtain information that you deem important, will you communicate it to those groups within a certain period of time?

[Lisa Pezzack]

I don't think so. Normally, important information is communicated as soon as possible.

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Thank you.

I do expect that we may get one question on this, and that would be along the lines from the public.... There are privacy issues involved here. What's the protective oversight on privacy issues?

[Lisa Pezzack]

The legislation is a very careful balance. The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act was designed as a very careful balance between national security and charter rights and privacy. The agency has as one of its primary objectives the protection of personal information. They are subject to regular audits by the Privacy Commissioner to make sure they are keeping those commitments.

[The Chair, Liberal, Wayne Easter]

Are there no further questions on division 19? Okay.

Thanks to both of you for your presentation and for answering questions.

We'll turn to—