Canada's 2018 Budget Heralds Introduction Of Deferred Prosecution Agreements For Corporate Wrongdoing

For those interested in white collar enforcement trends in Canada, the 2018 Budget (the "Budget"), contained some important news. Specifically, as part of a broader commitment to "strengthening [Canada's] approach to addressing corporate wrongdoing", the Government announced its intention to introduce legislation to establish Deferred Prosecution Agreements ("DPAs") as "an additional tool to hold corporate offenders to account". This commitment followed the release of the results of the Government's fall 2017 public consultation process, which revealed strong public support for the introduction of DPAs in Canada. This bulletin describes the potential impact of the Government's announcement, and explains why it could prove to be a significant change to the current regime for tackling corporate crime in Canada.