Madam Chair and fellow committee members, thank you for inviting me to speak today. My name is Sasha Caldera. I'm campaign director for the beneficial ownership project at IMPACT. IMPACT is a natural resource governance organization, based in Ottawa, whose mission is to tackle conflict minerals and illicit financial flows. We have staff and operations in Africa and in Canada.
For the past eight years, I've been leading a coalition of three civil society organizations to advocate for a public beneficial ownership registry with our partners Transparency International Canada and Canadians for Tax Fairness. We were successful, as Canada launched a publicly accessible and searchable beneficial ownership registry that is free of cost as of January 2024.
Today I'm pleased to share my thoughts concerning offshore tax havens. It's really important to take stock of the problem that we are trying to address. Tax havens are jurisdictions commonly used by nefarious individuals to aggressively avoid or evade taxes, robbing governments of the means to fund public services that citizens depend on, such as health care, clean drinking water and schools. Committee members have heard from a variety of expert witnesses. I want to offer a novel dimension to the conversation and discuss an aspect that tax havens have in common—namely, anonymous shell companies, transparency of the ultimate beneficial owners and money laundering.
In 2025 Finance Canada published “2025 Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Risks in Canada”. The report builds from prior assessments, and notes:
Money laundering linked to tax evasion deprives governments of revenues and capacity to spend on public infrastructure, goods, and services. Statistics Canada estimated underground economic activity, i.e., activity that escapes measurement due to being hidden, illegal, or informal, at $68.5 billion, or 2.7 per cent of total [GDP] in 2021.
Canadian corporations possess a very high vulnerability to money laundering. There may be more than 2,000 organized crime groups operating in Canada, and transnational organized crime groups regularly use anonymous shell companies to launder the proceeds of crime. The assessment report goes further, stating:
Corporations can be structured to conceal the true ownership of property, businesses, and other valuable assets. With authorities unable to ascertain their true ownership, these corporations can become tools for those seeking to launder money, avoid taxes, or evade sanctions.
Noting the vulnerability of corporations in Canada, shelf and shell companies are a phenomenon that countries around the world are trying to tackle. World-class beneficial ownership registries have been identified as one policy tool to deter tax evasion and assist competent authorities with investigations.
Here at home, we recognize efforts by public servants at Finance Canada who are working with provinces and territories to implement provincial beneficial ownership registries. As British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec have already committed to implementing or have implemented their own registry systems, a pan-Canadian co-operative agreement to advance beneficial ownership transparency is needed so that there are no weak points across the country.
To accelerate progress, we recommend that Minister Champagne strike a collective agreement with provincial and territorial finance ministers. Provincially registered companies can send beneficial ownership information directly to provincial beneficial ownership registries. Subsequently, this information may be shared in a centralized registry system. It is worth noting that a similar agreement was reached by finance ministers in 2017.
To conclude, a pan-Canadian collective agreement will be a game-changer in the global fight against tax evasion, organized crime, corruption, bribery and terrorist financing. This is because tax authorities, law enforcement, civil society and journalists can use a public registry to pinpoint suspicious actors. Transparency-oriented policy tools are the best deterrent mechanisms to combat tax evasion, which naturally relies on secrecy.
Speaking as someone who was born in Richmond, British Columbia, a pan-Canadian agreement will mean a lot for my hometown and for communities across Canada. Richmond is one of the entry points for money laundering in Canada. The harm done to the province has been well documented, as home prices have been artificially inflated and are out of reach for much of the middle class and working class.
Thank you so much for your time. I'm happy to take your questions.