Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act received royal assent in June 2024. It establishes an independent commissioner, their office and a public registry of foreign influence activities. It's designed to strengthen transparency and protect Canada's democratic institutions from malign foreign influence.
Under the FITAA framework, individuals or entities entering into an arrangement with foreign principals and undertaking activities intended to influence governmental or political processes at any level of government in Canada will be required to register these activities.
In order for the act to be brought into force, three items must be ready. The commissioner must be appointed and their office established. The regulations to support the implementation of the act must be in place. The IT components—notably, the registration form and the public registry, must be ready. We have made significant progress on all three components.
Anton Boegman has been selected as the commissioner-in-waiting. Mr. Boegman brings deep knowledge of electoral principles, legislation and operations from his time as the chief electoral officer of British Columbia from 2018 to 2025, and through senior roles at Elections BC.
While Mr. Boegman has been selected by Parliament, he cannot be formally appointed until the act comes into force. In the interim, he works as an executive adviser. We're working with him on operational readiness activities to support a smooth stand-up of the office once the regime comes into force. Public Safety is supporting the staffing of the office in consultation with the commissioner-in-waiting. All essential positions required to support the coming into force of the act have been staffed, or staffing is near completion, and staff training is in full swing to support operational readiness.
The regulations necessary to implement the regime are being finalized. The proposed regulations were published in the Canada Gazette, part I, in January. We received a lot of feedback that is informing our revisions to these regulations. Comments on the proposed regulations were published in the Canada Gazette for public review in April. The regulations will specify what information is collected and published, how an administrative monetary penalties regime will work and the information-sharing authorities, among other things.
We've received 154 individual comments on the proposed regulations. A repeated concern was the original lower range of the AMP regime, which was set at $50. That was deemed to be too low. We've received feedback that even the upper limit of the penalty range, set at $1 million, is not a strong enough deterrent for wealthy entities. We've also received feedback that the regulations proposed collect too much information via the registration.
I note that a lot of the comments did not pertain to the regulations but rather sought clarity on the purpose of the Foreign Influence Transparency and Accountability Act, as well as key terms. For instance, several commentators wanted clarity on what constitutes an arrangement with a foreign principal. This feedback is informing revisions to the regulations as well as the reference documents that will be made public.
The development of the IT infrastructure and website are well under way. We are in the process of completing the work to support the registration and the registry as such. We are also finalizing communications materials. In addition, we are engaging stakeholders to raise public awareness of the upcoming registry and registration obligations.
In simple terms, we are extremely close to the finish line. The final steps for establishing the regime will be publication of the final regulations in the Canada Gazette, part II, an order in council to bring the FITAA into force and the order in council to appoint the commissioner formally. However, the committee will understand that I'm not in the position to provide specific timelines for these decisions, as they remain cabinet confidence.
Thank you.
