CANADA EDGES UP IN LIST OF LEAST CORRUPT NATIONS – BUT STILL NOT BACK IN TOP TEN TIER
For Canadians there is good news and bad news in today’s release of Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
The good news: Canada has moved up to 76 points and 12th place after scoring 74 points and ranking 14th last year.
The bad news: We have still not returned to the top ten least corrupt list that Canada consistently ranked in prior to 2019.
OTTAWA: Today, Bill C-42 successfully received Royal Assent, paving the way for Canada to have a publicly accessible registry that lists the ultimate beneficial owners of companies. Earlier last month, Senate members heard from the ‘End Snow-washing’ Coalition: Publish What You Pay Canada, Transparency International Canada, and Canadians For Tax Fairness who provided a strong endorsement for the legislation and urged members to ensure it gets through Canada’s Senate without delay. Yesterday, the bill successfully passed all stages of reading in Canada’s Parliament and today it received Royal Assent.
Transparency International Canada (TI Canada) continues to identify the inadequate level of enforcement for corruption offences as the greatest barrier to combatting corruption in Canada. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) signalled its agreement with this in its Phase IV report on Canada’s implementation of the Anti-Bribery Convention, calling enforcement “exceedingly low”. Almost 25 years after the adoption of the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA), Canada’s criminal law prohibiting foreign bribery, charges have been laid in only nine cases – a paltry number especially considering the size and dominant industry sector of Canada’s economy.
There is a moment of increasing political will by wealthy democratic nations address global corruption, especially in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With potential leadership from the US, and emerging interest from countries like Canada and the Netherlands, it is critical that this political will for anti-corruption focus domestically as well as internationally.
One of the best-known data points in the anti-corruption field is the estimate from Global Financial Integrity that US$ 1.1 trillion in proceeds of corruption, crime and tax evasion are taken from developing countries every year and invested in Western banks, real estate, and luxury goods. The volume of illicit financial flows is higher than the total value of development aid and foreign direct investment into poor countries combined.
View the letter here:Letter to Hon Jody Wilson-Raybould re facilitation payments
On November 10, 2015, TI Canada Chair and President, Peter Dent and Executive Director, Alesia Nahirny, met with members of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) assessment team.The FATF conducts peer reviews of each member on an ongoing basis to assess levels of implementation of the FATF Recommendations with an in-depth description and analysis of each country's system for preventing criminal abuse of the financial system.The team was visiting Canada to assess Canada's anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing regime. While in Canada, the team sought the opinion of experts, including TI Canada, on the risk context of money laundering in Canada, specifically related to corruption.Their report should be published in a few months time and will be posted on our website.
