The Canada Revenue Agency offers incentives for tips about international tax evasion. We discussed the procedure for reporting to Canada’s tax agency in this blog post.
The Ontario Securities Commission has been considering whether to authorize rewards since 2010. A concept paper on the discussion is expected to be published this fall.
Canada’s securities regulators have two hotlines for whistleblowers but do not offer incentives. The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada has had a total of 37 calls since February 2011, but only 8 tips in 2013. The Mutual Fund Dealers Association just established its hotline whistleblower program in February. In contrast, the Securities and Exchange Commission received 62 tips from Canada through its whistleblower program in Fiscal Year 2012.
Retaliation Protections: The Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act was passed in 2006 to protect government employees but has been described as an “exercise in futility” as only six cases of wrongdoing have been found and no whistleblower has received a remedy through it. There are no nationwide protections against retaliation for the private sector: Saskatchewan and New Brunswick have passed protections available within their jurisdictions. In a 2014 report about protections at G20 countries, Canada’s private sector laws ranked near the bottom (along with Italy, Saudia Arabia and India). Only Russia was ranked worse.