Thank you very much for that question.
Indeed, the issue of beneficial ownership transparency in government procurement, licensing, permits and grants is a very serious issue. While we've been pushing for a registry all these years, if the government were to adopt beneficial ownership transparency as part of the due diligence process for procurement, grants, licences and permits, the power of the person and the power of the government to issue those various processes would be incredibly powerful in compelling a lot of companies to come forward with that information and deterring those who want to exploit our system.
I've looked a bit at the recent news on your committee's work on beneficial ownership in fisheries. We have to frame that while keeping in mind—I'm sure you've seen plenty of articles about it—the impact of illegal fishing and overfishing in our oceans. If we're connecting corruption as an underpinning issue to some of our society's greatest ills, whether they be conflict, societal inequality or environmental degradation, there's always an element of corruption there. If we want to get at these issues of illegal fishing and illegal trawlers, and people trying to exploit Canada's own fisheries, I would say it's incumbent on the government to know whom we're issuing these permits to.
In next steps, I would advise the government to start expanding who needs to apply—