Bill C-2 (2025) : Is the government of Mark Carney, a career banker, leading Canada towards a ban on the use of cash?

Claudiu Popa

June 12th, 2025

C-2 (2025) : Section 77.5, another controversial section of the law

On June 3rd, 2025, the Canadian government led by Prime Minister Mark Carney has introduced Bill C-2, the ‘Secure Border Act’[1].

Despite its misleading title, this ‘catch-all’ bill seeks to prohibit Canadian citizens and entities from accepting payments or donations of $10,000 or more in cash:

Offence — cash payments, donations or deposits of $10,000 or more

77.5 (1) Every person or entity that is engaged in a business, a profession or the solicitation of charitable financial donations from the public commits an offence if the person or entity accepts a cash payment, donation or deposit of $10,000 or more in a single transaction or in a prescribed series of related transactions that total $10,000 or more.

During the House of Commons of Canada debates, the opposition political parties (Conservative Party with 144 MPs, Bloc Québécois with 22 MPs, New Democratic Party with 7 MPs and the Green Party with 1 MP) did not do any ‘opposition work’ and criticise this section of the Bill.

The offence created against cash payments was not the subject of any adversarial debate, either during the first reading of the bill on June 3rd, 2025[2] or during the second reading on June 5th, 2025[3]. On the contrary, it carelessly passed both first and second readings, even though Mark Carney's government is a minority government (169 Liberal MPs out of a total of 343) and it would have been easy to block it.

Clearly, the section goes far beyond ‘border security’ and does not target ‘criminals’ only.

In its current version, the offence targets everyone: Canadian entrepreneurs, Canadian companies, Canadian businesses, Canadian lawyers, doctors and other professionals, Canadian artists, Canadian plumbers, and so on. It even applies to Canadian charities.

In reality, this section of the Bill contributes to the gradual disappearance of the right to anonymity and considerably limits the freedom that cash offers Canadians.

At the same time, the Canadian government of banker Mark Carney wants to gradually force Canadians to do business through banks and not directly with each other, by forcefully interposing a third party.

Digital currency and digital ID

This legislative initiative is part of the personal vision of the current Canadian Prime Minister, as well as the vision of central bankers around the world, which is to implement a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Source : Bank of International Settlements Innovation Hub (2021).

Mark Carney is a fervent promoter of this type of digital currency.

In 2021, he publicly stated that he envisions a world ‘with CBDCs at the core’[4] of the economy, complemented by the ‘combination of account-based CBDCs and digital IDs’[5].

His speech was published by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS)[6] which describes itself as the ‘bank for central banks’[7].

In August 2019, while he was Governor of the Central Bank of England (2013-2020)[8], Mark Carney gave another speech on the challenges of monetary policy in which he explained how the global monetary system based on the dollar is unsustainable and will have to be replaced by a new system[9].

When questioned on September 4th, 2019, by the UK House of Commons Treasury Committee whether it was ‘possible to avoid a long‑term fundamental structural change in the monetary regime’[10], Governor Carney replied:

« There will be a change, measured over decades. It is very hard to predict. […] but these structural flaws, in the end, in the system will ultimately result in a change. »[11]

The Bank of Canada, of which Prime Minister Carney was Governor for 7 years[12], has for some years now been preparing the ground for the introduction of a Canadian digital currency: the ‘Canadian digital dollar’[13].

This digital currency is a ‘virtual representation’ of cash, ‘without some of its characteristics, notably anonymity’[14].

Agustín Carstens, the Bank of International Settlements’ general manager[15] (an acquaintance of Mr Carney, the latter having chaired the Basel Committee on the Global Financial System of the Bank for International Settlements from 2010, for a 3-year term[16], as well as the Financial Stability Board for 7 years between 2011 and 2018[17] which is hosted and funded mainly by the Bank for International Settlements), describes the purpose of digital currency:

[…] CBDC, in particular for the general use, we intend to establish the equivalence with cash and there is a huge difference there. For example, in cash, we don’t know, for example, who is using a 100$ bill today. We don’t know who is using a one thousand pesos bill today. A key difference in the CBDC is that central bank will have absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that expression of [digital currency] and also, we will have the technology to enforce that. Those two issues are extremely important and that makes a huge difference with respect to what cash is[18].

In short, a digital programmable currency (ex : the possibility of setting a predetermined period of use or expiration date for the currency, determining what to buy, when to buy, how much to buy, etc.), which makes it possible to track every transaction of every Canadian, and whose use can be controlled not by the individual, but by the central bank or by the State (depending on future legislative provisions).

So, in the meantime, why not find all sorts of pretexts to make the use of cash as onerous as possible?

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[1] An Act respecting certain measures relating to the security of the border between Canada and the United States and respecting other related security measures, bill C-2, 45th legis., 1st sess., 2025, online : ‹https://www.parl.ca/documentviewer/en/45-1/bill/C-2/first-reading›.

[2] Id., 1st reading, June 3rd, 2025, online : ‹https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/45-1/house/sitting-7/hansard›.

[3] Id., 2nd reading, June 5th, 2025, online : ‹https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/45-1/house/sitting-9/hansard›.

[4] Marc CARNEY, « The Art of Central Banking in a Centrifugal World », Bis.org, June 28th, 2021, online  : ‹https://www.bis.org/events/acrockett_2021_speech.pdf›.

[5] Id.

[6] Id.

[7] BANK OF INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS, « The BIS: mission, activities, governance and financial results », 85 Annual Report, 2015, p. 133, online : ‹https://www.bis.org/publ/arpdf/ar2015e.pdf›.

[8] BANK OF ENGLAND, « Mark Carney », Bankofengland.co.uk, 2025, online  : ‹https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/about/people/past/mark-carney/biography›.

[9] Mark CARNEY, « The growing challenges for monetary policy in the current international monetary and financial system », Bankofengland.co.uk, August 23rd, 2019, online  : ‹https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2019/mark-carney-speech-at-jackson-hole-economic-symposium-wyoming›.

[10] TREASURY COMMITTEE. HOUSE OF COMMONS, « Oral evidence : Bank of England Inflation Reports, HC 596; UK’s economic relationship with the European Union, HC 473 », Committees.parliament.uk, September 4th, 2019, online  : ‹https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/9616/html/›.

[11] Id.

[12] BANK OF CANADA, « Mark Carney », Bankofcanada.ca, online : ‹https://www.bankofcanada.ca/profile/mark-carney/›.

[13] BANK OF CANADA, « Digital Canadian Dollar », Bankofcanada.ca, online : ‹https://www.bankofcanada.ca/digitaldollar/›.

[14] Clémence MAQUET, « MNBC : tout comprendre de la monnaie numérique de demain », Siecledigital.fr, November 2nd,  2020, online : ‹https://siecledigital.fr/2020/11/02/mnbc-tout-savoir-monnaie-numerique/›.

[15] BANK OF INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS, « Agustin Carstens – General Manager », Bis.org, online  : ‹https://www.bis.org/about/bioac.htm›.

[16] BANK OF CANADA, « Mark Carney », supra, note 12.

[17] FINANCIAL STABILITY BOARD, « History of the FSB », Fsb.org, May 22nd, 2025, online  : ‹https://www.fsb.org/about/history-of-the-fsb/›.

[18] Agustin CARSTENS, « Cross-Border Payments – A Vision for the Future », IMF, October 19th, 2020, online : ‹https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVmKN4DSu3g›.