The idea of a national public registry naming the real people behind Canadian companies — a vital tool in the fight against tax evasion, money laundering and corruption — appears to be stalled.

While federal and provincial finance ministers agreed on the weekend to make corporate ownership information — often referred to as “beneficial ownership” — available to law enforcement and tax authorities, there’s no plan to give the public access to the records.

“Just requiring corporations to have the information on hand is not good enough,” says James Cohen, director of policy and programs for Transparency International Canada. “We’d strongly urge the government to consider the benefits of a public registry of beneficial owners . . . because (law enforcement agencies) are already stretched thin.”

A public registry would provide “an extra set of eyes, such as civil society and investigative journalists, to review the information,” he said.

Buried in an announcement Monday, federal and provincial finance ministers acknowledged “blind spots” in Canada’s corporate registry system and said the new measures are intended to “prevent webs of Canadian or international companies from concealing ownership information in order to facilitate tax evasion, money laundering and other criminal activities.”

The announcement says federal and provincial finance ministers are committed to “further strengthening corporate transparency . . . The information revealed through the recent leaks of the Panama and Paradise Papers reinforces the need for action.”

But it makes no reference to corporate transparency being shared with the public.

In Canada, secrecy around corporate ownership makes it possible to register a corporation, open a bank account, and send and receive money overseas all without disclosing one’s name — the same kind of secrecy offered by traditional tax havens.

An ongoing Star/CBC investigation into corporate ownership secrecy has detailed how Canada has emerged as a popular destination for international companies and individuals seeking to avoid or evade taxes by using this country’s shadowy corporate registration system.

While the new measures announced Monday offer a modest step forward, they fall well short of a British-style beneficial ownership registry that makes public the names of real company owners in the U.K.

In response to questions from the Star over the past year, Finance Minister Bill Morneau has acknowledged the importance of beneficial ownership information in the fight against tax evasion. Yet he has been noncommittal about whether he supports an open and transparent registry available to the public, citing privacy concerns around naming corporate directors and owners.

“I don’t think in any way, shape or form we are ruling (a public registry) out,” Morneau’s spokesperson, Chloe Luciani-Girouard, told the Star on Tuesday. “We have broad consensus and broad agreement to move forward on this.”

This week, the ministers agreed to pursue legislative amendments that would compel corporations to “hold accurate and up-to-date information on beneficial owners that will be available to law enforcement and tax and other authorities.”

That is a far cry from the U.K.’s Companies House registry, which provides public access to a searchable database listing every registered company and details on each beneficial owner including their date of birth, nationality, country of residence, occupation, date they were appointed as a company director and links to all other companies with which they have an affiliation.

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It’s a leading global model that would benefit Canada, according to Canadians For Tax Fairness, Publish What You Pay Canada and Transparency International Canada, three leading organizations pushing for a public corporate ownership registry.

“I don’t think it’s closed yet,” says Transparency International Canada’s Cohen. “We hope to see a continued effort to encourage any of the governments who weren’t prepared to have public registries come around and come on board with this and we hope to see much more robust announcements down the line.”