Snow-Washing in Canada: Time to address secrecy.
A story behind the numbers
In a quiet Toronto neighbourhood, a multi-million-dollar home sits mostly empty.
It was purchased through a numbered company. No obvious owner. No family living there. Just dark windows most nights and a lawn that gets trimmed by a service once a week.
Neighbours started asking questions. Eventually, investigators traced the company back to a foreign official under investigation for corruption in their home country. The home—like many others—had become a safe place to park wealth far from scrutiny.
No violence. No visible crime. Just money—quietly moving through Canada and blending in.
Another side of the story…
Across the country, the same financial secrecy fuels something far less quiet.
Profits from synthetic drugs—including fentanyl—are routed through layers of shell companies, casinos, cash-intensive businesses, and real estate. Money moves quickly: structured deposits, wire transfers, and complex transactions designed to blur the trail.
What starts as street-level harm—overdoses, addiction, and community loss—doesn’t stay there. The proceeds are laundered, re-enter the financial system, and are reinvested into more criminal activity.
The damage is visible in emergency rooms and neighbourhoods—but the money behind it often disappears into the system.
This is snow-washing, too.
What is snow-washing?
Snow-washing is a form of money laundering that uses Canada’s financial and corporate systems to legitimize illicit funds.
The term—popularized by Toronto Star—captures a simple idea: Canada’s global reputation for stability makes dirty money look “clean.”
As tax lawyer Jonathan Garbutt has noted, foreign institutions often assume Canadian entities are trustworthy—giving bad actors an easy way to hide wealth in plain sight.
The scale of the problem
Money laundering in Canada isn’t small—it’s systemic.
Estimates range from $45 billion to over $100 billion every year
Criminal networks use Canadian companies and assets to move and store wealth
Enforcement struggles to keep up with increasingly complex financial structures
This is not a victimless crime—it’s a structural weakness in our economy.
How it works
Snow-washing relies on one key ingredient: secrecy.
Bad actors can:
Set up companies without revealing the true owner
Use intermediaries or nominees to mask control
Buy and sell real estate to “clean” illicit funds
Move money through layered transactions across jurisdictions
Once inside the system, illicit funds are nearly indistinguishable from legitimate capital.
Why Canada?
For years, Canada has had gaps that made it an attractive destination for hidden wealth.
A 2016 report by Transparency International highlighted weak beneficial ownership transparency compared to peer countries.
Key vulnerabilities included:
Fragmented or absent federal and provincial registries
Limited public access to ownership information
Inconsistent or absent identity verification
In short: it has been too easy for criminals to do business in secret.
The real-world impact
Snow-washing isn’t abstract—it hits Canadians directly.
Housing affordability
Illicit money flowing into real estate has contributed to price pressures in cities like Toronto and Vancouver.
Business and Procurement Fraud
Fraud schemes by organized crime routinely harm small to medium-sized businesses by providing low-quality or harmful supplies. Municipalities in Canada are at risk of fraudulent suppliers as well.
Economic distortion
Dirty money inflates asset prices and crowds out legitimate investment.
Crime and community harm
Money laundering enables organized crime, including drug trafficking and fentanyl distribution, with devastating human consequences.
Reputational risk
Canada’s standing as a safe and transparent place to do business is undermined.
Progress is happening—yet criminals can take advantage of gaps in Canada
Canada has begun to address this problem, yet it’s far too easy for criminals to launder money through secret companies and properties.
Federal action
Major reforms to the Canada Business Corporations Act led to a publicly accessible, searchable, and free beneficial ownership registry for corporations, which was launched in 2024 and maintained by Corporations Canada.
Provincial leadership
British Columbia: a publicly accessible, searchable, and free land ownership registry was launched in 2020.
Québec: a publicly accessible, searchable, and free beneficial ownership registry for corporations was launched in 2021.
These are meaningful steps—but the system is still fragmented across Canada, and loopholes remain.
What needs to happen now
To truly tackle snow-washing, Canada needs to finish the job:
1. Spearhead a pan-Canadian registry agreement between provinces and the federal government.
Harmonize beneficial ownership registry standards across the country via a pan-Canadian framework agreement between provinces and the federal government.
2. Provinces commit to meeting or exceeding the federal corporate beneficial ownership criteria.
Ontario, and other provinces need to use the federal registry criteria as a north star and commit to implementing provincial registries with a goal of interoperability.
3. Provinces commit to beneficial ownership registries for real property
Provinces need to follow British Columbia and commit to publicly accessible
4. Verify the data
Require robust ID checks to ensure ownership information in registries is accurate.
5. Close loopholes for ownership, influence, and control
Ensure that trusts, nominees, and complex ownership, influence, and control chains are reflected in legislative frameworks.
Why transparency works
When ownership is visible:
Criminals lose their advantage of secrecy
Law enforcement can follow the money
Businesses can verify who they’re dealing with
Journalists and civil society can expose wrongdoing
A strong registry doesn’t just detect crime—it deters it.
The global context
Canada is not alone—but it has been playing catch-up.
The United Kingdom pioneered public ownership disclosure
The European Union requires registries across member states
Canada is now moving forward—but must ensure its system is comprehensive and effective
Take action
Canada has made positive progress—but gaps remain. Now is the moment to push for a system that works.
We are calling for:
A pan-Canadian beneficial ownership registry agreement between provinces and the federal government.
Provinces commit to public, searchable, and free registries for companies and properties.
Verified, high-quality data.
Strong enforcement and meaningful penalties.
Public access that empowers accountability.
Where can I learn more about progress in Canada?
Please refer to our campaign timeline for up-to-date information about major announcements and milestones for Canada.
