🍁 civid v1

Status and scope

• Bill C-2, the Strong Borders Act, was introduced at first reading on June 3, 2025. It proposes changes to border administration, immigration, financial-crime enforcement, investigations and information access.
• The supplied text includes the bill’s summary and detailed provisions through part of Part 8; the rest is truncated. Details below for later Parts come from the bill’s summary.

Parts 1–5: Border, drugs, mail and coast guard

• Part 1 — Customs: Requires specified international transport facility owners and operators to provide and maintain adequate CBSA facilities free of charge for administering or enforcing CBSA program legislation. People transporting export goods and operators of certain warehouses must give officers access and open packages on request. Transitional provisions restrict reimbursement lawsuits concerning past facility costs, including pending cases.
• Part 2 — Drug precursors: Creates a temporary accelerated pathway for the Health Minister to add precursor chemicals to the controlled-substances schedule, with related changes to precursor controls. Temporary listings end on specified dates, earlier removal or addition to another schedule, as applicable.
• Part 3 — Police investigations: Confirms the authority to make regulations exempting designated police, military police and people acting under their direction from certain offences involving conspiracy, attempt, counselling or being an accessory after the fact in drug investigations. It also confirms the validity and past effects of specified existing regulations.
• Part 4 — Mail: Allows items in the course of post to be demanded, seized, detained or retained only in accordance with an Act of Parliament. It expands Canada Post’s authority to open mail in certain circumstances to include letters. In specified cases, written notice to Canada Post is required within 60 days.
• Part 5 — Coast guard: Adds security activities, including patrols and intelligence work, to coast guard services and authorizes the responsible minister to collect, analyze and disclose information or intelligence. This Part would come into force the day after royal assent.

Parts 6–9: Immigration and asylum

• Part 6 — Information sharing: Allows the immigration minister to disclose departmental personal information internally and, under written agreements or arrangements, certain identity, status and document information to federal or provincial government entities. Provincial recipients may disclose it to a foreign entity only with the minister’s written consent and in a manner respecting Canada’s international obligations concerning mistreatment. Regulations may set conditions and limits.
• Part 7 — In-Canada asylum: Eliminates the designated-countries-of-origin regime and changes how claims are processed before referral to the Refugee Protection Division. The minister may specify required information and documents; the division may decide that certain un-referred claims are abandoned, after giving claimants an opportunity to make representations. The minister may determine that an un-referred claim is withdrawn when the claimant gives written notice, and may reinstate it on application. Certain claim and appeal proceedings must pause if the claimant is outside Canada. Some changes would apply to pending claims, and several provisions would commence on dates set by order.
• Part 8 — Applications and documents: Gives the Governor in Council powers, when it considers it in the public interest, to order that certain immigration applications not be accepted or that processing be suspended or terminated; and to cancel, suspend or vary certain documents or their conditions. Orders can address whether application fees are repaid. Regulations could also set circumstances for officers to terminate processing or alter documents.
• Part 9 — Asylum ineligibility: Adds two grounds on which refugee claims are ineligible, permits regulations providing exceptions and includes a transitional provision concerning retroactive application. The supplied summary does not state the two grounds.

Parts 10–13: Financial crime and sex-offender registration

• Part 10 — Financial-crime compliance: Raises maximum administrative penalties and criminal punishments for certain violations and offences. It replaces optional compliance agreements with mandatory agreements for prescribed violations; refusal or non-compliance requires a FINTRAC compliance order. It also requires specified entities not already required to register to enrol with FINTRAC and permits certain disclosures to the Commissioner of Canada Elections.
• Part 11 — Cash transactions: Prohibits certain entities from accepting third-party cash deposits and certain persons or entities from accepting cash payments, donations or deposits of $10,000 or more.
• **Part 12 — Financial supervision