The Government of Canada is committed to protecting Canadians and Canadian businesses against money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion and tax avoidance, while ensuring it remains attractive to do business in Canada. That is why federally-incorporated, privately-held businesses are required to create and maintain a register of individuals with significant control over the corporation. Through our continued coordination with the provinces and territories, we are now exploring options to make the information maintained in these registers more readily available to law enforcement, tax and other competent authorities, such as through the creation of a public registry.
Consultation process
From February 13, 2020 to May 30, 2020, the Government of Canada invited Canadians to provide comments on the Consultation paper: Strengthening Corporate Beneficial Ownership Transparency in Canada.
Over the course of the consultations, Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) and Finance Canada officials met in person or by phone with 29 organizations across Canada, in the public, private and non-profit sectors, and received 50 written or emailed submissions. A broad spectrum of stakeholders provided input, including law enforcement and tax agencies, industry associations, privacy commissioners, individual Canadians and a coalition of civil society organizations.
What We Heard Report
The Consultation on strengthening corporate beneficial ownership transparency in Canada's What We Heard Report summarizes the views of all participants, as well as the key themes that emerged through the process. We thank all stakeholders for their contributions.