Canada Proposes C$10,000 Cash Limit and New Police Mail-Search Powers

Canada's government has introduced legislation that would restrict cash payments of C$10,000 or more, tighten oversight of money-service businesses and cryptocurrency cash machines, and allow police to search mail when they have authority under existing federal criminal or drug laws. The proposals are not yet law.

Bill S-8, formally the Combatting Financial Crimes and Drug Trafficking Act, was introduced in the Senate on 3 November 2026. Parliament's official bill tracker records first reading that day and lists the measure at second reading in the Senate, with no House of Commons stage completed. The Senate's 4 November order paper placed second reading on its 5 November business list. Being listed for debate does not mean it has passed.

The Finance Department says the bill would restrict large cash transactions at or above C$10,000 and third-party cash deposits, in which one person deposits cash into another person's account. Banks and credit unions would be exempt from the large-cash-transaction restriction so cash could still enter the financial system. The government describes the restrictions as measures against money laundering, not as a ban on holding cash or all cash purchases.

The bill would also expand the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada's ability to refuse or revoke registrations of money-services businesses, such as remittance and currency-exchange operators. Criminal-record checks for owners or investors would apply at a lower ownership threshold: 5% instead of 20%, according to the Finance Department's backgrounder.

For cryptocurrency ATMs, the proposal would criminalize operating an unlicensed machine. The department says licensed and provincially regulated machines could continue operating, subject to enhanced requirements. It proposes an 18-month period after royal assent before the unlicensed-machine ban takes effect, and 90–180 days for related regulatory changes. Those clocks would not begin unless the bill becomes law.

A separate provision would amend the Canada Post Corporation Act to permit police to search or seize mail when they already have lawful authority under the Criminal Code, Controlled Drugs and Substances Act or Cannabis Act. The government says this is narrower than an earlier proposal because it would not give postal inspectors a new general power to open letters. Whether the safeguards are sufficient will be a question for parliamentary scrutiny.

The proposal also envisages wider information sharing from law enforcement to regulated financial businesses for anti-money-laundering work. The Finance Department argues these changes would help disrupt fraud and organized crime. That is the government's policy justification, not an independently measured outcome of this unpassed bill.

The legislation arrives days after Canada's auditor general reported weaknesses in FINTRAC's timeliness and supervision, including an average response time of almost four months for some financial-intelligence requests. That separate audit is covered in TFNOS's earlier report: https://tfnos.org/article/canada-audit-finds-four-month-financial-intelligence-delays-as-fintrac-defends-its-record-ba7e8c65f095. Neither the audit nor the bill's introduction establishes that the proposed powers will remedy the measured delays.

The next verifiable developments are the Senate's second-reading proceedings, any committee amendments, subsequent votes and the government's published implementation regulations. Until enactment, the new restrictions and powers remain proposals.