Justice Committee on Oct. 5th, 2026

[Rob Stewart]

We foresee the agency being brought into the institutional frameworks that exist today within the Five Eyes, the G7 and other country groupings that the RCMP is already a member of, and, again, supplementing the awareness, the understanding and the analytical capability that exists in the system today to bring more information to the table and be a better collaborator.

[Wade Chang, Liberal, Burnaby Central, BC]

Thank you.

How would establishing a dedicated financial crimes agency strengthen Canada's position as a trusted partner in the global fight against money laundering, fraud and organized financial crime?

[Rob Stewart]

You may be aware, sir, of the recent publication of an evaluation by the Financial Action Task Force that encouraged Canada to do better in terms of investigating and prosecuting serious, complex crime. Again, a specialized agency would, by definition, in terms of its capabilities, if properly built, help us to do that.

[Wade Chang, Liberal, Burnaby Central, BC]

Thank you.

Mr. Brazeau, in 2024 alone, the Canadian anti-fraud centre reported that Canadians lost $643 million to fraud, a nearly 300% increase since 2020. What is driving this significant increase, and what does this tell us about how financial crime is evolving in Canada?

[Julien Brazeau]

There is no doubt that fraud has become an increasing issue. Seldom does a day go by that we don't get a call about fraud. The ability that criminals have of leveraging things like social media platforms, as well as telecoms, in terms of perpetrating crimes and being able to access people wherever they are has really led to an increase in frauds. Serious frauds are certainly part of the focus of this initiative, but I should say as well that the Department of Finance is doing work at the moment and consulting on a broader anti-fraud strategy aimed specifically at this burgeoning issue of frauds and scams that are affecting Canadians.

[Wade Chang, Liberal, Burnaby Central, BC]

Thank you.

As financial crime is becoming increasingly international, how are our G7 and OECD partners responding?

[Julien Brazeau]

It's a focus of all G7 countries. When Canada had the presidency of the G7, the Minister of Finance put forward a call for action on transnational crime and financial crime.

Criminals are really intelligent people. They look at weaknesses in our respective systems and jurisdictions, and they exploit those. Canada recently came out of a mutual evaluation that said our system was “robust” but still needed improvement. Other countries are going through that same evaluation process. We are all still playing catch-up on things like beneficial ownership and other mechanisms through which we can try to address the transnational nature of these crimes.

[Wade Chang, Liberal, Burnaby Central, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much. That concludes your time, Mr. Chang.

At this point, seeing the time on the clock, I want to say thank you to all of our witnesses for your very thoughtful contributions to the deliberation of Bill C-29 today.

I just want to make a comment, Mr. Westmacott. I'm not sure if anybody has ever told you that you look exactly like Secretary of State Wayne Long.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Chad Westmacott, Director General, Serious and Organized Crime, Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness]

Someone has mentioned that before, yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much, all of you.

Before we adjourn, I just want to go over the schedule for the next couple of weeks if that's okay, members. Give me a couple of minutes here.

In the next few weeks, October 8, October 19 and October 22 will be dedicated to witnesses. I know that a number of members have raised this concern, and I want to note that we want to make sure the Minister of Finance is going to be here at committee. We are working with him and his office to find that time. He will be here before clause-by-clause. I'm proposing October 26 and October 29 for clause-by-clause.

I will be reaching out to all of you through the clerk in terms of scheduling deadlines for when amendments or proposed amendments will be due. Other than that—

Ms. Gladu, please go ahead. Do you have a question?

[Marilyn Gladu, Liberal, Sarnia—Lambton—Bkejwanong, ON]

I have a motion to approve the budget for the Bill C-29 study.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

I was going to get to that. Thank you. I appreciate that.

We have a motion to approve the budget for Bill C-29. You all have received that in your emails.

(Motion agreed to)

All right. That is the conclusion of our committee meeting today.

Our meeting is adjourned.