Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak to Bill C-2, the strong borders act.

I want to begin by thanking our dedicated officers from the Canada Border Services Agency, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and our frontline men and women who serve within our local police forces, as well as those who serve within our national security apparatus. I thank all of them for their service and their commitment to keeping us all safe.

Our border is maintained through rigorous enforcement, advanced technology and strong domestic and international partnerships. Although there is more to be done, this new government was elected in part to take concrete action in order to keep Canadians safe. This is why the bill in front of us, the strong borders act, is so important.

The bill would ensure that law enforcement has the necessary tools to keep our borders secure, combat transnational organized crime, stop the flow of illegal fentanyl and crack down on illicit financing and money laundering more broadly. These measures would bolster our response to increasingly sophisticated criminal networks while ensuring that we protect Canadians' privacy and charter rights.

One of the key goals of this bill is to strengthen the government's effort against illicit financing and money laundering. We know that money laundering supports and perpetuates criminal activity by allowing criminals, such as fentanyl traffickers, to profit from their illicit activities and then reinvest in their criminal enterprises.

This makes strong and effective anti-money laundering controls a critical component of keeping Canadians safe. Bill C-2 would strengthen Canada's anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regime through stronger penalties for financial crimes and by addressing the most prevalent forms of money laundering.

It would enhance public-to-private information sharing and strengthen the supervision and compliance of financial institutions and other businesses and professionals with anti-money laundering obligations.

The strong borders act proposes a comprehensive set of amendments to the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act to ensure that businesses and professionals regulated by the act are effective in detecting and deterring money laundering. This means strengthening the administrative monetary penalty framework through increased civil and criminal penalties while establishing safeguards for small businesses so they are not disproportionately penalized.

The strong borders act would enhance compliance program requirements and enforcement. It also means punishing serious criminal non-compliance by increasing the limits for all criminal fines 10 times. The stronger penalties proposed for non-compliance would better align Canada with other countries, including the United States and the European Union.

The strong borders act would also introduce a new offence for the provision of false information to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, more commonly known as FINTRAC.

We will strengthen the anti-money laundering framework and support the fight against financial crime more broadly—

Vince Gasparro

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