Financial Crime Agency being created - Bill C-29

[brihard]

Looks like yesterday the legislation for the new federal Financial Crimes Agency was tabled; Bill C-29. Government Bill (House of Commons) C-29 (45-1) - First Reading - Financial Crimes Agency Act - Parliament of Canada

Long and the short of it:

• New federal law enforcement agency under the Minister of Finance.
• Appears to be a ‘separate agency’ within the federal public administration, sort of like RCMP or CSIS- federal but arm’s length from the public service.
• Mandate will be to tackle ‘complex and serious’ financial crimes and recover proceeds where possible.
• Headed by a commissioner; it’ll have its own organization and classification system.
• The Minister will have authority to direct the Commissioner on anything that “in the Minister’s opinion, materially affects public policy or the strategic direction of the Agency”… So pretty direct ability of Cabinet to steer priorities.
• The agency will employ “investigations officers” who will be “public officers” under the Criminal Code and can get things like search warrants and production orders.
• Some positions will explicitly be “Police Officers” with full peace officer status. The legislation lists this distinctly from the ‘investigations officers’; I suspect a subset of the investigations officers will be full police officers to do that stuff that requires additional physical risk or use of force.
• The agency can enter an arrangement with RCMP for provision of certain services and capabilities. (Makes sense)
• Employees will be under Public Service Superannuation Act for pension.

So, about what we would expect. I’m glad it’s finally happening. I suspect a chunk of RCMP federal policing will be poached, others will be seconded to help them stand up. It’s good that serious financial crime and threats to our financial integrity will get dedicated work.

They’ll face lots of interesting challenges in standing up a new federal police service from scratch. This will be neat to watch.