Browse regulations

This regulation grants legal capacities, privileges, and immunities to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub Toronto Centre and its officials in Canada, allowing them to operate independently while carrying out official activities. It includes definitions, legal status, and specific immunities for members, managers, officials, and experts involved with the BIS organization.

Canadians would be worse off if this regulation was deleted because it enables international financial cooperation and innovation through the BIS Innovation Hub. Removing these immunities would likely prevent the hub from operating effectively in Canada, limiting our participation in global financial technology development and reducing opportunities for economic growth through international collaboration.

Establishes a coordinated vaping duty system across nine provinces/territories, imposing additional taxes on vaping products based on residency and location, with phased implementation from July 2024 to January 2025.

This tax increases consumer prices, creates compliance burdens for businesses, distorts market competition, and incentivizes black markets. It reduces supply and choice while harming harm reduction potential for smokers switching to safer alternatives. Any public health objectives can be achieved through less costly means such as age verification, product labeling, or targeted restrictions rather than broad taxation that interferes with voluntary exchange.

This Order exempts specified government and military personnel, as well as contractors supplying jammers to the Department of National Defence, from the general prohibition on jammers in the Radiocommunication Act. Exemptions are limited to purposes including national security, defence, public safety (including prisons), international relations, law enforcement, and property protection. The regulation imposes conditions including mandatory training, reporting to the Minister, record-keeping of all use, minimizing interference and emissions, secure storage, and ensures directives are accessible. It includes a five-year sunset clause.

These exemptions are narrowly tailored for legitimate core state functions—military, national security, and law enforcement—where jamming capabilities are essential and cannot be replaced by less restrictive means. The regulation balances security needs with accountability through training, reporting, and minimization requirements. The sunset clause ensures parliamentary review. Deleting it would impair Canada's defence and security operations without achieving any liberty or economic benefit, as it doesn't restrict private voluntary activity.

This regulation gives domestic legal force to Articles 3.1 to 3.14 and Annexes 3-A and 3-C of the Canada–Ukraine Free Trade Agreement, which govern rules of origin and related matters, while repealing the previous CUFTA Rules of Origin Regulations.

Canadians would be worse off without it because it implements trade liberalization with Ukraine, providing legal certainty and preferential market access for Canadian exporters and consumers. Deleting it would renege on Canada's international obligations and raise trade barriers, harming prosperity and competitiveness.

This Order approves a fixed list of specific alcohol screening devices (by brand and model) for use under the Criminal Code to ascertain blood alcohol presence, replacing a prior order and effective upon registration.

The prescriptive list creates artificial barriers to competition and innovation, locking in specific manufacturers and preventing adoption of newer, more accurate or cost-effective technologies. Hidden costs include higher prices for law enforcement, delayed technological progress, and reduced consumer welfare. A performance‑based standard would ensure reliability without these distortions.

Sanctions regulation targeting Sudan and individuals/entities associated with the Sudanese government, Rapid Support Forces, and Sudanese Armed Forces for undermining peace, security, and human rights. Prohibits Canadians and Canadian entities from dealing with listed persons, requires financial institutions to monitor and report holdings, and provides removal and mistaken identity processes with limited exemptions.

This is a targeted foreign policy instrument, not a domestic economic regulation that distorts Canadian markets. Sanctions are a legitimate tool of statecraft with narrow scope, minimal domestic compliance burden, and exemptions that limit collateral damage. Unlike regulations burdening housing supply, healthcare competition, or interprovincial trade, this does not create systemic inefficiencies, reduce Canadian competitiveness, or impede liberty within our domestic economy.

These regulations establish a fee structure for broadcasting undertakings in Canada, requiring groups with revenue exceeding exemption thresholds to file returns and pay annual fees based on their revenue share of total regulatory costs. The system includes definitions, exclusions, return requirements, fee calculations, and transitional provisions for online undertakings and fiscal years 2024-2025 and 2025-2026.

This regulatory framework creates a tax-like fee system that increases costs for broadcasters, reduces competition by imposing administrative burdens on smaller players, and distorts market signals. The complex revenue calculations and exemption thresholds create artificial barriers to entry and growth, while the fee structure effectively subsidizes regulatory bureaucracy rather than promoting innovation or consumer choice in broadcasting services.

These regulations govern the form (deposit or written agreement), content, and provider eligibility for customs bonds required under the Customs Act and Customs Tariff, including electronic filing requirements and deemed contractual terms.

The closed list of approved security providers stifles competition, artificially raising bonding costs for importers. Market forces, not government mandates, should determine acceptable security arrangements. The electronic mandate and one-size-fits-all terms also impose unnecessary compliance burdens that increase the cost of importing goods, ultimately harming Canadian consumers and economic competitiveness.

This regulation prescribes the grounds of inadmissibility for individuals processed through Canadian preclearance areas or perimeters, adapting references in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and Regulations to ensure consistent application of immigration rules in preclearance contexts.

Deleting this regulation would create legal uncertainty in preclearance operations, likely reducing the efficiency and reliability of border processing. This would increase wait times at physical borders, harming legitimate travel, trade, and Canada's competitiveness. The regulation's technical adaptations are necessary for preclearance to function as intended, providing a net benefit to Canadians.

Regulation establishes comprehensive prescriptive requirements for offshore renewable energy projects (wind power) and associated power lines, including mandatory management systems, safety/environmental/emergency plans, detailed application contents, certification requirements, and ongoing reporting obligations. It grants the Canadian Energy Regulator extensive approval authority over design, construction, operation, and decommissioning.

Creates massive barriers to entry and delays through prescriptive, one-size-fits-all requirements that assume government knows better than market participants how to manage risk. Imposes huge compliance costs that reduce supply of renewable energy, increase consumer prices, and stifle innovation. The heavy approval process invites regulatory capture and bureaucratic expansion while doing little that couldn't be achieved through liability law, insurance markets, and industry standards. Unseen costs include foregone renewable projects, slower decarbonization, and reduced Canadian competitiveness in marine energy.

Exempts Saskatchewan from federal methane regulations for upstream oil and gas sector, recognizing equivalent provincial regulations through a 2025 agreement. Repeals previous order SOR/2020-234. Exemption terminates if the equivalency agreement ends.

This order reduces regulatory burden by exempting Saskatchewan from duplicate federal methane regulations where equivalent provincial rules exist. The termination clause maintains federal oversight while respecting provincial jurisdiction and allowing regulatory competition—consistent with Misesian principles that decentralized, competitive regulation yields better outcomes than centralized mandates. Removing this would impose unnecessary duplication on Saskatchewan's energy sector.

This order exempts Saskatchewan from federal carbon dioxide emissions regulations for coal-fired electricity generation, establishes an equivalency agreement with Saskatchewan's own regulations, and repeals a previous order that exempted Saskatchewan from earlier federal regulations.

Creates regulatory fragmentation by maintaining different standards across provinces, undermines national climate policy consistency, and perpetuates the interprovincial trade barrier problem by allowing Saskatchewan to operate under different environmental rules than other provinces.

Regulation establishes emission limits for fossil fuel electricity generation units ≥25MW connected to electricity systems. Limits decline from 65 tonnes CO2/GWh (2035-2049) to zero after 2050. Requires registration, continuous emission monitoring (CEMS), reporting, and allows offset/compliance credits. Applies to new units starting 2025; existing units have delayed timelines based on age and modifications.

This command-and-control regulation imposes certain, immediate costs on Canadian electricity generation while achieving negligible global climate impact. It raises energy prices, restricts supply, and stifles innovation by mandating specific technologies and emission trajectories rather than allowing market-driven decarbonization. The rigid zero-emission mandate after 2050 eliminates flexible transition options, jeopardizing grid reliability and affordability. Canada would be better served by revenue-neutral carbon pricing, letting decentralized market actors determine optimal emissions reductions.

Comprehensive regulation for offshore petroleum activities requiring detailed safety and environmental management systems, extensive documentation, and robust plans to protect against accidents and pollution in the Canada-Nova Scotia offshore area.

Excessive bureaucratic requirements increase compliance costs and reduce energy competitiveness without clear safety benefits. Strict liability, mandatory insurance, and third-party certification would achieve similar outcomes more efficiently, allowing market forces to optimize safety while holding operators accountable for harm.

Comprehensive federal regulations governing offshore and onshore oil and gas drilling and production operations in Canada, establishing safety, environmental protection, and resource conservation requirements under the Canada Oil and Gas Operations Act.

These regulations provide essential safeguards for safe operations, environmental protection, and maximum resource recovery. Deleting them would eliminate critical oversight, increasing risks of catastrophic accidents, pollution, and wasteful practices that would ultimately harm both public safety and long-term industry viability.