Protecting Canadian households and institutions against sophisticated economic scams and the criminals behind them, all while preserving the integrity of Canada's financial system, will save Canadians billions more every year, invite more outside investment in Canada's industries, disrupt illegal criminal networks and put an end to nefarious financial crimes across the country.
Today, in keeping with our plan to better detect, disrupt and deter economic crimes, the government introduced Bill S-8, the Combatting Financial Crimes and Drug Trafficking Act. Once operational, Bill S-8 will:
- Address the criminal abuse of money services businesses (MSBs) by introducing new Ministerial powers, strengthening registration requirements, including increased criminal record checks, and expanding the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada's (FINTRAC)'s ability to refuse or revoke registrations.
- Crack down on unlawful crypto ATMs to better protect Canadians from fraud and other financial crimes. Canadians can continue to use provincially licensed and regulated crypto ATMs as well as in-person and online cryptocurrency exchanges.
- Address common forms of money laundering by restricting large cash transactions of $10,000 or more and third-party cash deposits. This would help tackle profit-driven crimes like fraud and drug trafficking that generate cash revenue which can be difficult to trace because it is anonymous and easily transferrable.
- Enable law enforcement to lawfully search and seize mail in support of their investigations by amending the Canada Post Corporation Act. These amendments would allow search and seizure of mail by law enforcement if they have lawful authority under the Criminal Code, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, or the Cannabis Act. Unlike Bill C-2, these amendments would not allow postal inspectors to open letters. This aligns Canada Post with private courier companies, where search and seizure is permitted now with the lawful authority to do so.
- Improve public-private information sharing by allowing regulated businesses to receive and use information disclosed by law enforcement for anti-money laundering purposes. This would strengthen efforts to detect and deter money laundering and support the Integrated Money Laundering Intelligence Partnership between law enforcement and Canada's big banks.
These measures build on the government's coordinated action plan to fight organized and financial crime, adding to the numerous other measures announced in Budget 2025 and Spring Economic Update 2026. This includes historic investments made in law enforcement, newly announced measures to fight extortion, the development of a standalone National Anti-Fraud Strategy, and the creation of the Financial Crimes Agency.
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