As you say, it's a publicly accessible beneficial ownership registry to identify the true individuals. For anybody not familiar with beneficial ownership registry and shell companies, company ABC might be owned by company 123, which is owned by company Ontario 456, which was opened by...Bob. Who's Bob, at the end of the day, and why the level of secrecy?
Bob could be an entirely legitimate business person, but there is no precedent for anonymity behind all those layers. Bob could also be somebody who is evading taxes, denying Canadians revenue for various services that you discussed, such as health services or the environment. Bob could be a kleptocrat from overseas, stealing money from some of the most vulnerable people around the world and hiding it here in Canada. That individual could also be a criminal perpetuating the fentanyl crisis in Canada and facilitating gang activity. He could be a sanction-buster trying to move money around to allow weapons to go into countries like Syria. There's a whole host of people.
As Ms. Watson alluded to, this is not victimless. When we talk about these grand numbers that are being moved around through the shell companies, we should know that there's a precedent crime underneath them. Whether it's undermining Canadian society through sapping resources that should fund our public services, allowing criminals to continue to operate within Canada for crimes in Canada or overseas, or ruining our good name abroad while we give foreign aid money but have stolen money from those very same countries wind up back in mansions in Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver, this all has an impact, and it all should matter to everyday Canadians.