A parliamentary committee is urging the Trudeau government to provide details on a financial crime-busting program it first proposed three years ago and subsequently promised in the last two budgets.
“In Budget 2022, the government announced its intention to create a Canada Financial Crimes Agency, a commitment that was reiterated in Budget 2023,” wrote the Commons
foreign affairs committee in a
report presented to the House on Jan. 31.
The report noted that the Finance Department had also informed the committee last June that
Public Safety Canada was “developing options for the potential scope and mandate of such an agency,” but no specific details have been announced since.
In the report, the committee asked Ottawa to come up with the necessary guidelines on how to run the agency.
It recommended that “in Budget 2024, the Government of Canada provide details on the structure and mandate of the proposed Canada Financial Crimes Agency” and that “the Government of Canada consider designating a unit within the proposed Canada Financial Crimes Agency responsible for sanctions enforcement.”
‘Under One Roof’
Creation of the Canada Financial Crimes Agency (CFCA) was first proposed by the Liberals in their 2021 re-election platform “Forward For Everyone.”At the time, the Liberals said it would commit $200 million to the agency over the next four years and leverage the resources and expertise of the RCMP, Canada Revenue Agency, and Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC) “under one roof.”
“Fraud, money-laundering, insider trading, organized crime, and other financial crimes put Canadians at risk, and put our economy [at] risk,” the platform said.
“A re-elected Liberal government will: Establish Canada’s first ever, nation-wide agency whose sole purpose is to investigate these highly complex crimes and enforce federal law in this area.”
In July 2023, a
report from FINTRAC noted that China is behind many money-laundering transactions and other fraudulent financial activity in Canada.
According to the
report, “Investment firms, along with individuals listed as financial planners and investors, were often the recipient of large bank drafts ultimately funded from unknown sources in China, notably in Hong Kong.”
“FINTRAC analyzed a sample of nearly 48,000 transactions in relation to the laundering of the proceeds of crime through underground banking schemes,” the report said.
“The majority of the underground banking-related disclosures primarily involved incoming wire transfers from entities or individuals in China, notably in Hong Kong, followed by the movement of these funds through financial institutions into the following sectors: casinos, real estate, securities, automotive and the legal profession.”
In early June 2023, a month before release of FINTRAC’s report, the federal government had launched a
public consultation to examine ways to improve Canada’s anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regime.
In FINTRAC’s
consultation paper provided to help seek comments and feedback from the public, one full chapter was devoted to national and economic security. A description of the chapter reiterated the feds’ intent to review FINTRAC’s mandate to decide if it should be “expanded to counter sanctions evasion and the financing of threats to national and economic security.”
The consultation closed on Aug. 1, 2023.
Prior to that, Public Safety Canada in March 2023
issued a
tender notice seeking a contractor “to conduct research, analysis and undertake key stakeholder interviews” in order to develop a final report, due March 31, 2024, outlining options for the design of the CFCA.
