Thank you, Ms. Lapointe. It's always a pleasure to appear before the committee.
Businesses will be required to gather two new pieces of information. As you know, businesses were already gathering information such as the owner's name and date of birth. Under the proposed bill, they'll now be required to gather two additional pieces information: their residential address and the address they use to send information to the corporation, as well as citizenship information. Two pieces of that information—name and address—will be published in the database. Date of birth and citizenship information will not be made public. However, the various agencies that are required to ensure compliance with the act will have access to it.
We've achieved what I consider a good balance because the Canadian Business Corporations Act already requires businesses to file an annual report. Businesses are also required to inform Corporations Canada when a new director is appointed within 15 days of that appointment.
Since businesses are already required to file an annual report, we've established that the coming into force would be on the date of incorporation. There will be no additional obligation. Once the act comes into force, businesses will have to gather the two additional pieces of information that I mentioned earlier.
The vast majority of Canadian businesses are small and medium-sized businesses, or PMEs. We haven't increased their administrative burden because we want to keep this simple. We also want information in the registry to make it possible to identify individuals who may wish to engage in unlawful activities, for example.
I think those are the reasons why we have a good balance for the country's businesses.