QUESTION PERIOD — Privy Council Office

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Carney took action to address the problems of the Canada Revenue Agency by appointing a highly qualified person, Heather Evans, from outside the Government of Canada. Today, we learned from the Auditor General that we also have a serious problem at the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, or FINTRAC. The Auditor General’s report highlighted that FINTRAC did not have strong oversight to ensure that businesses were complying with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing laws.

FINTRAC is responsible for overseeing 36,000 businesses, including banks, casinos and mortgage lenders. The audit found that as the number of businesses under supervision increased, FINTRAC relied on self-declarations and information provided by businesses to assess whether they were meeting their legal obligations. This slackness is causing serious harm to Canada’s reputation. What will the Government of Canada do about it?

I appreciate your briefing book doesn’t have the notes because the report was just released today.

Criminal Intelligence Service Canada has indicated that between $45 billion and $113 billion are laundered through Canada every year. Will the Prime Minister take action similar to what he took on the Canada Revenue Agency and put in management that can deal with this problem?