Mr. Speaker, today the House is debating important legislation: Bill C-12, the strengthening Canada's immigration system and borders act. Bill C-12 would strengthen our country's security by proposing changes to support border security and immigration, to fight transnational organized crime and to disrupt illicit financing. We urgently need to update many of our laws if we want to be able to address the complex security challenges our country is currently facing.
With Bill C-12, CBSA officers would have the capacity to inspect exported goods in warehouses and transportation hubs. Owners and operators of certain ports of entry and exit would be required to provide facilities for export inspections just as they currently do for imports. These changes would strengthen the CBSA's ability to detect and seize contraband for export, including illicit goods such as fentanyl and stolen vehicles.
Canada's coasts also face new security risks. That is why this bill would allow the Canadian Coast Guard to conduct security patrols. It would also be able to collect, analyze and share information for security purposes. Canada strictly controls synthetic drugs and the precursor chemicals used to produce them. Unfortunately, the illicit drug market is constantly evolving in an attempt to evade these controls. Bill C-12 would ensure the Minister of Health can rapidly control the precursor chemicals used to produce illicit drugs, including fentanyl.
Border security and immigration are top priorities for the Liberal government. Notably, this bill would also help us enhance the integrity and fairness of our immigration system. Canada's asylum system exists to protect people who are fleeing persecution or risks to their life or safety in their home country. The strengthening Canada's immigration system and borders act would, among other things, improve how we receive, process and decide on asylum claims to make the system faster and easier to navigate.
The amendments contained in Bill C-12 would also help law enforcement respond more effectively to evolving border security challenges. Border security requires a coordinated effort across the entire government, as information from various federal institutions may be required to thoroughly assess the situation.
Federal departments and agencies need to work together to share information in order to understand and respond to demands and to keep people safe. For that reason, Bill C-12 would enhance the ability of the RCMP to share information on registered sex offenders with domestic and international partners.
It would improve how IRCC shares information so that federal, provincial and territorial partners can make timely, accurate decisions to ensure the integrity and better delivery of public services. IRCC already shares applicant information with its domestic partners in limited circumstances, but this bill would create clear and direct legal authorities to allow for proactive and systematic information sharing and to reduce administrative burdens.
Any new use or disclosure of personal information under these new authorities would follow existing privacy laws, policies and best practices. Additionally, the proposed measures would strengthen Canada's anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regime, including through stronger anti-money laundering penalties. It is well known that money laundering supports crimes like human trafficking, fentanyl trafficking, fraud, theft and other economic crimes. This is why we need new tools to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated criminal threats and techniques.
The measures contained in the bill would strengthen businesses' compliance to anti-money laundering obligations, including through a 40-times increase in administrative penalties. This would ensure non-compliance is not treated as the cost of doing business.
The bill would enable FINTRAC to exchange supervisory information on federally regulated financial institutions with other members of the financial institutions supervisory committee, and it would add the director of FINTRAC to this committee.
Because international organized crime networks represent the biggest threat to our country's security, we have already taken several important measures. First, our government established the integrated money laundering intelligence partnership with Canada's largest banks, which is enhancing our capacity to develop and use financial intelligence to combat fentanyl trafficking and other organized crime.
Second, we have listed seven transnational organized crime groups as terrorist entities under the Criminal Code. Listing is an important tool that supports criminal investigations and strengthens the RCMP's ability to prevent and disrupt criminal activities. We continue to monitor this and will add more to the list as needed.
Finally, Canada appointed its first fentanyl czar, who serves as the main interlocutor between the Canadian and U.S. governments for enhancing our collaboration in combatting fentanyl. While less than 1% of illicit fentanyl seized in the U.S. is linked to Canada, we are working to ensure fewer drugs and their precursor chemicals cross our shared border. To increase our illegal fentanyl detection abilities, we are training and deploying new border detector dog teams that specialize in fentanyl detection.
We have also taken into account stakeholders' concerns and have introduced Bill C-12 to advance these legislative priorities as quickly as possible. Bill C-12 draws on elements of Bill C-2 that are designed to combat transnational organized crime and those who seek to exploit our immigration system. This streamlined bill would balance the need to protect our borders with concerns about Canadians' privacy.
Bill C-12 would complement ongoing efforts to secure our border from coast to coast to coast and keep Canadians safe. We must act with urgency on all these issues. Now is the time to update our laws to continue to address increasing and more complex security challenges. I wish to reassure this House that there is no greater priority for our government than to keep Canadians and our communities safe. That is why we are taking strong measures to combat crime and ensure our border remains safe and secure.
I hope that my hon. colleagues from all sides of the House will join me today in supporting Bill C-12.