Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, colleagues.
Allow me first to express my thoughts for the people of Clova, in my community and the riding I represent in northern Mauricie, whose town has been overwhelmed by fire.
It's a pleasure for me to appear before the committee today to discuss Bill C‑42.
As you can see, I am accompanied by Mark Schaan, who will also be with you to answer more detailed questions in the next hour.
As colleagues would know, our government is committed to a robust and effective regime that will combat money laundering and tax evasion, improve Canadians' trust in the marketplace and make Canada a leader in corporate transparency.
I'm pleased to note, Mr. Chair, that I've heard that in principle all the parties are in agreement that this is the way forward for the country.
I think that Canadians who are watching us today would agree that a creating a free, public and searchable registry of beneficial owners of federally regulated Canadian corporations will increase corporate accountability and improve public trust in corporate institutions.
I'm delighted that all the opposition parties support the principle of Bill C‑42, and I'm satisfied that, based on our discussions and those that the committee has had with the experts, we can find a consensual path on which to move forward together.
In that regard, I thought I would use my limited time today to underscore a few characteristics of the bill that are likely of particular interest to the members of this committee. The first point I would like to make is that the amendments proposed in Bill C‑42 are based on the amendments made to the Canada Business Corporations Act, or CBCA, in 2018, 2019 and 2022.
Corporations already gather information on their beneficial owners. What we want to do today, Mr. Chair, is increase the amount of data that will be collected and ultimately published.
What we are doing is ensuring that the information is transmitted to the government and that a limited and reasonable amount of that data is published for transparency purposes.
The definition of control under the CBCA, which is 25% of voting rights—I know that committee members have discussed this from several angles and that the issue has also been raised in the House of Commons—stems from these previously made amendments, and it is entirely consistent with Canadian statutory provisions on money laundering, but also with the registries adopted around the world, particularly in the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United States and even Quebec.
The amendments proposed in Bill C-42 will require the CBCA corporations to collect and send additional information about their individuals of significant control in the form of residential addresses and citizenship.
Bill C-42 will also require Corporations Canada to make publicly available a portion of this information. It is important to note that individuals will continue to have the option to provide an address for service. When they do so, it is that latter address that will be made public.
Citizenship, like the date of birth, will be available to law enforcement, but, to protect the privacy of Canadians and to prevent fraud and discrimination, it will not be made public.
The bill also introduces an exemption regime for certain at-risk individuals. These exemptions are required to ensure our regime is charter compliant, targeted and, importantly, limited to public disclosure.
I want to be clear to all Canadians watching today that law enforcement will have full access to all the data collected.
Among other things, Bill C‑42 contains very strict compliance provisions, and sanctions for simple non-compliance, whether due perhaps to ignorance or forgetfulness, for example, are consistent with other similar penalties provided for under the Canadian Business Corporations Act. However, penalties for willful non-compliance—and I emphasize the word "willful"—to conceal other offences, for example, will be among the most severe in the world.
Bill C‑42 also provides for effective administrative sanctions and whistleblower protections.
Finally, Mr. Chair, the government has committed to making the beneficial ownership registry searchable and scalable to allow access to beneficial ownership data held by the provinces and territories that agree to participate.
In that vein, I'm happy to report to this committee that the Minister of Finance and I wrote to the ministers of finance for the provinces and territories this morning, asking them to join in this big endeavour so that we can cover as many corporations in Canada as possible. We have a long history of pan-Canadian collaboration on beneficial ownership transparency. Through this collaboration, we are looking to maximize coverage and ensure that the registry reaches its full potential. We will notably do so through the adoption of an international data standard that will facilitate interoperability.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I'm now ready to answer questions from my colleagues so we can proceed as quickly as possible to adopt this bill.
