Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s 2022 budget, released Thursday, included a passing reference to plans to set up Canada’s Economic Crime Agency. The new law enforcement service will be in charge of “rapid (response) to complex and rapidly evolving financial crime cases”.
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It is the latest in a series of efforts by the Liberal government to crack down on financial crime and set up a co-ordinating body that can bring the necessary know-how to complex investigations. This is a role currently played by the Mounties, which investigate money laundering, monitor the resources and assets of organized crime and investigate “serious fraud and corruption” – including other financial crimes. The story goes on under the ad According to a government source, who agreed to discuss the initiative on condition of anonymity, it has not yet been decided whether the agency will be an autonomous law enforcement agency – with the ability to prosecute – or a co-ordinating body to assist financial crime investigations. The scale of financial crime in Canada is difficult to estimate. However, Jessica Davis, a security adviser and former Canadian security official, said that financial crime in Canada was “pervasive” and that “we do not know” the extent of the issue. “To me, (the Financial Crime Service) is a bit like setting up this new service to solve all the problems we refuse to solve differently,” Davis said in an interview. “Resources for investigation, expertise for investigation. “Depending on how it is structured, I’m a little more optimistic that we might at least be able to protect know-how in a financial crime service instead of the RCMP.” 1:04 Ottawa should have “much more” resources to fight white collar crime, such as money laundering: the Ottawa expert should have “much more” resources to fight white collar crime like money laundering money laundering: specialist – February 2, 2022 The Liberals proposed just $ 2 million for Canada Public Security – the same department responsible for the RCMP – to “take on the initial work of developing and designing the new organization.” Trending Stories
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The story goes on under the ad Further details have been promised in the Liberal Government’s Autumn Financial Statement later this year. In the 2021 election, the Liberals proposed that the new service bring together the RCMP, the Financial Transaction and Reporting Analysis Center (FINTRAC), and the Canada Revenue Service “under one roof.” But even the idea of assigning responsibility for financial crimes to a separate federal law enforcement agency is likely to lead to another round of questions about the RCMP’s future as Canada’s national police force. The RCMP has a dual role in Canadian policing. The force is responsible for contract policing, where most Canadians meet – as a contract police force for provinces and territories, including rural and remote communities. But the Mounties are also the federal police force responsible for high-profile and highly sensitive investigations into things like terrorism, organized crime and corruption.
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The tension between the two roles – and the way the RCMP distributes limited resources and staff – is a policy issue that has been simmering for years. Former RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson, testifying before the Senate National Security Committee in 2017, said the force should “prioritize” its resources “based on the threat posed by the criminal problem.” The story goes on under the ad “Regarding terrorism, in Canada there is no appetite for any kind of terrorism. Therefore, we have a zero-failure approach. “It’s very resource-intensive,” Paulson told senators at the time. “That’s why we’re removing some of the resources from some of the other areas that may not have the same level of priority. “In the meantime, we are supporting and proving that we need more resources to do this new work.” The RCMP spent $ 533.4 million on the “National Police Services” – which includes financial crimes – in 2018-19. The planned expenditure for the National Police Services for the period 2021-2022 amounted to 498.4 million dollars and is projected to decrease slightly in both the financial years 2022-23 and 2023-24. An internal RCMP email received from the Toronto Star suggested that, following an April 2019 review of federal policing priorities, the Mounties would shift financial crime resources to focus on three key issues: national security, transnational serious crime, and organized crime. and cybercrime. According to the Star, the email of 2019 stated as a result “financial crime was no longer an autonomous priority”.
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That same year, the Liberal government – which was pursuing a re-election campaign – promised to spend about $ 20 million a year on ongoing RCMP funding to tackle financial crime. The 2019 budget also instructed Public Safety Canada to set up what they called the ACE Team, which is responsible for coordinating intelligence and police work to “tackle significant money laundering and financial crime threats”. The story goes on under the ad The ACE Team, now called the Financial Crime Coordination Center (FC3), is in the third year of a five-year pilot project. © 2022 Global News, part of Corus Entertainment Inc.
