An Act to amend the Financial Administration Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts (debt forgiveness registry)

This bill creates a new public registry of large debts that companies, trust companies or partnerships owe to the federal government (the Crown) when those debts have been remitted, forgiven, written off or waived. It only covers cases where the amount involved is $2 million or more. The registry will be an online, searchable database run by the President of the Treasury Board, and it must include details like the debtor's name, the amount forgiven, the type of relief given, the fiscal year it happened, and the law or agreement involved. The Treasury Board President can withhold specific details if disclosing them would expose confidential, personal or sensitive information, but must note in the registry that something was left out and why.

The government has 18 months after the law takes effect to set up the registry, and afterward must update it within 90 days of each tabling of the Public Accounts in Parliament. The rule applies only to debts owed directly to the Crown—not to debts owed to separate Crown corporations, which are treated differently and excluded from this registry requirement.

To support this new registry, the bill also updates several other federal tax laws (including the Income Tax Act, Excise Tax Act, Excise Act, 2001, Softwood Lumber Products Export Charge Act, Digital Services Tax Act, and Global Minimum Tax Act) so that confidential taxpayer information can legally be shared for the purpose of maintaining this registry. Finally, the bill includes coordinating provisions to avoid conflicts if another bill (Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1) makes a similar change to the Digital Services Tax Act at the same time.

This bill amends the Financial Administration Act to require the President of the Treasury Board to create and maintain a public, searchable online registry of debts of $2,000,000 or more owed to the Crown by corporations, trust companies or partnerships that have been remitted, forgiven, written off or waived, and makes related changes to tax and confidentiality provisions in other Acts.

• Who holds the duty — the President of the Treasury Board must build the registry within 18 months of the section coming into force and update it within 90 days of each tabling of the Public Accounts.
• What must be disclosed — the debtor's name and business name, the amount forgiven, the type of relief (remission, forgiveness, write-off, or waiver), the fiscal year, the originating instrument or Act, and the Act under which relief was granted.
• Discretionary exclusion — the President of the Treasury Board may exclude information they consider inappropriate to disclose for reasons of confidentiality, personal information, or sensitive information; the registry must note only the category of reason for exclusion, not the withheld content itself.
• Catch-all data field — the President of the Treasury Board may add "any other information" they consider appropriate, with no stated limit on what this could include.
• Scope carve-out — debts or claims owed to or by Crown corporations are explicitly excluded from being treated as owed to or by His Majesty, so those are not covered by the registry.
• Information-sharing amendments — the Income Tax Act, Excise Tax Act, Excise Act 2001, Softwood Lumber Products Export Charge Act, Digital Services Tax Act, and Global Minimum Tax Act are each amended to permit disclosure of otherwise confidential taxpayer information specifically for the purposes of operating this registry.
• Oversight — no appeal mechanism, sunset clause, or independent review of the President of the Treasury Board's exclusion decisions is specified in the text.