During the period of the financial crisis there was a restriction on the ability of financial institutions globally to fund in commercial markets. In particular, commercial securitization markets effectively shut down.
One type of securitization that continued to function was the covered bond market. Part of the reason is that the covered bond has a dedicated pool of assets that stands behind the bond and is collateral in the event that the issuer, the bank, for example, were to fail. The covered bond itself would continue to function because these bonds continue to generate income that would support the payout on the bond.
These amendments are creating a legislated framework in Canadian law to support the structure of that covered bond.