44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 28, 2023 10:00AM
Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Calgary Centre.
It is a pleasure to rise today and speak to Bill C-42, an act to amend the Canada Business Corporations Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other acts.
Bill C-42 amends the CBSA to require Corporations Canada to make public certain information regarding those with significant control or ownership of federally regulated private corporations in Canada, creating a national registry of these individuals. In this case, “significant control” is defined as someone owning or controlling at least 25% of the corporation's shares. The bill will also better protect whistle-blowers, add new offences and give Corporations Canada additional inquiry, data validation and information-sharing powers.
The government has stated that its goal with this bill is to protect Canadians against money laundering and terrorist financing, deter tax evasion and avoidance, and ensure that Canada is an attractive country in which to conduct business. The bill's title, while literal, does not speak to the good the bill would do to combat money laundering and criminal financial activity in our country. Because of this, the Conservatives support the bill in principle, with important amendments recognizing the sheer need for action on money laundering in Canada. I will talk about the amendments later. First of all, I need to outline just how serious financial crime is in Canada and, thus, speak to the need for this bill.
Money laundering in Canada is so well known in the world that criminals call it “snow-washing”. While it is a problem throughout the country, the worst of the issue is concentrated in British Columbia, especially in the Vancouver area. As stated in the Cullen commission's final report on the issue of money laundering in British Columbia, money laundering has, as its origin, crime that destroys communities. This includes drug trafficking, human trafficking and fraud. Such crimes victimize the most vulnerable members of society. Money laundering is also an affront to law-abiding citizens, who earn their money honestly and pay their fair share of the costs of living in a community. There can be few things more destructive to a community's sense of well-being than a governing regime that fails to resist those whose opportunities are unfairly gained at the expense of others.
Under the Liberal government, and going back into certain governments in the 1990s, Canada became a haven for money laundering. Specifically, in the nineties, the British Columbia provincial NDP government changed regulations that governed casinos. Five-dollar bets became $500 bets at baccarat tables and private gambling salons, and the bets only grew from there.
The Cullen commission report indicates a stunning growth in cash transactions in B.C. casinos; first flagged by investigators in 2008, transactions continued unabated until at least 2014, when casinos accepted more than $1.2 billion in cash transactions. Many of the transactions matched the indicators for criminal funds, where bricks or even duffle bags of cash were delivered to casinos. The commission indicated that these criminal transactions involved loan sharks delivering bundles of $20 bills, which had been packaged in a way that was consistent with the proceeds of drug trafficking, to high-profile foreign gamblers. These gamblers had travelled primarily to Canada to play baccarat in secluded areas of the casino. These high rollers often paid back the loan sharks the funds they gambled via transactions in their country of origin. In this evolution, B.C. gambling, real estate and luxury items became favourite tools of criminals to launder illicit foreign funds.
It is ironic that it is the Liberal government strengthening money-laundering bills. I am glad to see it, but if we look at the history even since I was elected, there was Joe Peschisolido, who was accused of money laundering. Then we had Raj Grewal, who asked questions about money laundering to FINTRAC at committee just before being arrested and charged with fraud. We also have another backbencher who is flipping real estate, even though we know that real estate is one of the key ways in which money laundering is happening. As I said, it is ironic that they are bringing this forward, but I certainly agree that we need to do something to rein in out-of-control money laundering.
The commission also found that, in B.C.'s economy, casinos, real estate dealings, banks and law offices face big money-laundering risks and that the failures of the federal RCMP and FINTRAC allowed money laundering to grow. The report indicated that FINTRAC's reporting regime is essentially wasteful and that the RCMP's lack of attention has allowed for the unchecked growth of money laundering since at least 2012.
The report states:
One of the primary criticisms of the federal regime is the ineffectiveness of FINTRAC.... While...there is a statutory threshold that must be met before FINTRAC can disclose information to law enforcement, the number of disclosures to law enforcement is [allegedly] not commensurate with the volume of reports that FINTRAC receives, nor with the scale of money laundering activity in British Columbia.
That is according to Cullen and his team. He suggests:
Law enforcement bodies in British Columbia cannot rely on FINTRAC to produce timely, useful intelligence about money laundering activity that they can put into action.
It is true that FINTRAC receives an enormous volume of reports from public and private sector reporting entities, but it produces only a modest number of intelligence packages that actually go to law enforcement. For example, in 2019 to 2020, the Cullen commission found that FINTRAC received over 31 million individual reports. In that same year, it disclosed only 2,057 intelligence reports to law enforcement agencies across Canada and only 355 to law enforcement agencies in B.C.
Global News reporter Sam Cooper has been investigating dirty money in B.C. for years. He found that, as of 2016, fully half of the luxury properties in Vancouver were owned through suspicious circumstances. The Prime Minister has known about this for years. The global money-laundering watchdog warned the Prime Minister in 2016 that Canada was a safe haven for money laundering, particularly in our real estate market, and that a registry was needed to help identify and deter this activity. In fact, the watchdog gave the Liberal government a failing grade in five key areas because dirty money was able to slip into our businesses and real estate market undetected, with no questions asked. That was 2016, and it is now 2023; the legislation is pretty late in coming.
The Panama papers data leak in 2016 exposed that international criminals have long exploited the gaps in Canada's corporation beneficial ownership regulatory scheme to engage in corrupt conduct through federally, provincially and territorially administered corporations. Canada is generally perceived as having weak laws to combat money laundering and the proceeds of crime. As a result, in 2018, B.C. launched the expert panel on money laundering in real estate. The panel estimated that in B.C. alone, more than $7 billion of dirty money was laundered in 2018 and between $800 million and $5.3 billion was laundered through the real estate market, raising housing prices by an estimated 5% on already wildly expensive properties.
The Cullen commission report demonstrates that money laundering within real estate often involves the use of loans, mortgages and, in some cases, lawyers' trust accounts in the legal system. It can also involve cash. The report provides this example: A criminal might take out a mortgage with the purchase of a property and repay the mortgage with the proceeds of crime. If the cash deposited for each payment is under $10,000, it will not trigger the requirements for a large-transaction report to FINTRAC. Over time, criminals may accumulate multiple properties or higher-value real estate using this strategy. The properties can then be sold, often at a significant profit in the Vancouver real estate market, with the criminal property owner receiving clean funds from the purchaser to complete the money-laundering process.
Law-abiding Canadians across the country have been suffering as a result of this issue. Since the Trudeau government was elected, the price of a home in Canada has—
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- Apr/28/23 11:17:41 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the first vacation the Prime Minister went on was to a billionaire's private island. He claimed he was a close personal friend. Was this not also his first ethics violation?
In 2021, on the first-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, he and his family jetted off to Tofino for a surfing vacation.
This year, before going on vacation to a luxurious Jamaican resort, he received approval from the Ethics Commissioner. That luxurious Jamaican estate belonged to the wealthy Green family, which has made big donations to the Trudeau Foundation. The Prime Minister stated that Peter Green was a close personal friend. Wait. Was the billionaire not also a close personal friend? I guess it is different this time. After all, they are both rich donors to the Trudeau Foundation.
I am sure all Canadians agree that they cannot wait until the Prime Minister takes a permanent vacation from politics.
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- Apr/28/23 11:39:35 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, at this point, the ties between the Prime Minister and the Trudeau Foundation are clear. His family, his friends and his staff are involved, as we heard in committee this morning.
The ties between the Chinese government and the foundation are also clear after a $140,000 donation was made. The Trudeau Foundation is a collection of Liberal Party friends, and that is why it is of interest to China. All Quebeckers understand this.
One question remains: Who can trust anyone from the foundation to investigate Beijing's attempts to get close to Liberal circles?
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- Apr/28/23 11:40:11 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, where I agree with the member is that it is very clear. The Prime Minister has had no direct or indirect contact with the Trudeau Foundation for over 10 years now. That is well established and is very clear.
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- Apr/28/23 11:40:28 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, Ottawa must clamp down.
This was the warning given last week by Raphaël Glucksmann, chair of the special committee on foreign interference in Europe, who stated that what made it possible for these repeated attacks to take place was first and foremost the absence of sanctions, adding that there were no sanctions in the European Union.
That is why the Bloc Québécois is calling for three things: first, an independent public inquiry; second, an independent and permanent investigative body; and, third, a criminal law on foreign interference to equip police services. No one will settle for an already-discredited report by the Trudeau Foundation.
When will the Prime Minister realize that?
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- Apr/28/23 11:41:57 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, by using the Trudeau Foundation, a Beijing influence operation was successful. For $140,000, Beijing had access to the Prime Minister and to the man the Prime Minister picked to investigate and report on foreign interference in our elections. What did that report say? It said there was nothing to see.
Is $140,000 the cost to influence our democracy under the Liberals?
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- Apr/28/23 11:42:54 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Liberals are unreal. They are the only ones who think that “arm's-length” means literally holding a meeting at arm's length from the Prime Minister's desk. They allowed Beijing to directly interfere in our elections and gave direct access to the Prime Minister and the person who is supposed to investigate interference in our elections. It is unbelievable. It is frankly not credible. Conservatives have called for hearings to occur on this, and we have invited, because he asked in the newspapers, Mr. Alexandre Trudeau to appear at committee to answer questions.
The Prime Minister's brother is going to answer questions. The board that is falling apart is answering questions. When will the Liberals finally give Canadians answers?
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- Apr/28/23 11:43:49 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, Trudeau Foundation donors paid for the Prime Minister's luxurious $80,000 Caribbean vacation. The Prime Minister's brother signed off on a $140,000 Beijing bribe to the foundation to buy his influence, and the foundation held a meeting with five deputy ministers in none other than the Prime Minister's own office.
The Prime Minister claims he has nothing to do with the Trudeau Foundation. Is it really so?
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- Apr/28/23 11:44:21 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, yes, it really is. I do not know how much clearer I can be on this issue. The Prime Minister has very much indicated that there has been no direct or indirect contact with the Trudeau Foundation. The member knows that, and it has not taken place for over 10 years now.
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- Apr/28/23 11:44:42 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, there is more. The Prime Minister appointed the former president of the Trudeau Foundation to whitewash Beijing's interference in the 2021 election. It was interference to help him get re-elected. Convenient appointments, paid vacations, meetings in his office and Beijing bribes all connect the Prime Minister to the Trudeau Foundation.
When will the Prime Minister and the government stop insulting the intelligence of Canadians and admit that the Prime Minister is closely connected to the foundation that bears his family name?
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