A Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) is calling on the federal government to start taking cryptocurrency seriously, recommending a national strategy to lure investors to Canada.
The proposal by MP Michelle Rempel Garner is Canada’s first legislation related to digital coins and tokens.
While Canada “should be attracting billions of dollars of investment in this fast-growing industry,” it’s instead losing talent to Europe and the U.S., Rempel Garner said in a written statement.
A so-called private member’s bill, the law Rempel Garner proposed has a low probability of being adopted by the government. But it comes on the heels of a similar call from a top finance executive.
Mike Katchen, chief executive officer (CEO) of Wealthsimple Financial, told a business luncheon last month that Canadian policy makers should “plant a flag” on cryptocurrencies as part of their efforts to diversify the nation’s resource-based economy.
The bill also comes amid increasing scrutiny of digital currencies in Canada due to fundraising in Bitcoin (BTC) by some organizers of the trucker convoy that’s been occupying Ottawa for nearly two weeks.
Rempel Garner’s bill directs the finance minister to develop a “national framework” in consultation with industry experts that focuses in part on “lowering barriers to entry” into the cryptocurrency sector.
In drafting the bill, Rempel Garner said she purposely left language around the framework broad in an effort to win support across partisan political lines.
