Browse regulations

Remission of temporary resident visa fees for extended family affected by the Gaza crisis, covering applications submitted between January 9, 2024 and April 22, 2025 under two temporary public policies.

Creates temporary regulatory complexity and administrative burden for a specific humanitarian crisis. The desired outcome (family reunification) could be achieved through existing immigration pathways without creating special fee remission rules that distort normal visa processes and create compliance challenges for immigration officers.

These Regulations impose detailed prescriptive safety standards on large fishing vessels over 24.4m or 150 tons, covering stability, construction, equipment, and systems. They mandate specific technical requirements, materials, testing, and inspections administered by a regulatory board.

Keeping this regulation imposes heavy compliance costs, creates barriers to entry that reduce competition, stifles innovation through rigid technical mandates, and increases seafood prices. The same safety outcomes could be achieved more efficiently through liability law, insurance markets, and private certification, allowing market forces to determine optimal safety levels.

Order designating individuals as heads of government institutions for Privacy Act compliance, replacing a 1983 order.

Deletion would undermine Privacy Act accountability by creating uncertainty about responsible officials. Formal designation ensures transparency and enforceability of privacy protections without imposing substantive burdens on liberty or prosperity.

Designates specific individuals as heads of government institutions under the Access to Information Act and repeals a previous designation order.

This regulation ensures clear accountability and proper administration of information access rights. Without designated heads, Canadians would face uncertainty about who to contact for information requests, undermining transparency and the fundamental right to access government information.

Grants remission of income tax paid by the World Trade Organization to Canada under the Income Tax Act for 2000-2011 regarding WTO pension plan investments, plus related interest and penalties, with conditions for claims and evidence of tax payment.

Maintaining international diplomatic and trade relations requires honoring tax exemptions for international organizations. Removing this would damage Canada's standing in the WTO and potentially trigger retaliatory measures, harming Canadian exporters and businesses that rely on international trade agreements.

Technical specifications for timber dimension measuring devices used in commercial transactions, setting accuracy standards (±1 d tolerance), preventing fraud mechanisms (e.g., tare functions), and requiring certification markings, testing, and record-keeping to ensure reliable measurement of log length and diameter.

Canadians would face increased measurement fraud and higher transaction costs without this regulation. The government certification provides a uniform, enforceable standard that is hard to replicate through private means: industry self-regulation risks capture by manufacturers, while tort law addresses fraud only after harm occurs. This pre-emptive specification prevents systematic cheating in timber commerce where accurate measurement is fundamental to fair trade and contract enforcement.

This regulation provides rent and fee remission for properties in Jasper National Park affected by the July 2024 fires, including partial or full rent relief for cottages and other properties based on habitability and revenue loss, with specific percentages and timeframes for different property types and circumstances.

Canadians would be worse off if this regulation was deleted because it provides crucial financial relief to property owners who suffered losses from natural disasters. Without this remission, many would face severe financial hardship, potentially leading to bankruptcies, foreclosures, and the loss of homes and businesses in affected communities. The regulation helps stabilize the local economy and allows for recovery after catastrophic events.

Remission of fees for replacing documents lost due to wildfires in 2024, covering passports, citizenship documents, immigration documents, and consular services.

This targeted relief helps Canadians who lost essential documents to natural disasters without creating systemic regulatory burden. The narrow scope and time-limited nature ensure it addresses genuine hardship while maintaining normal fee structures for unaffected individuals.

This regulation designates numerous international terrorist organizations and individuals, listing their various names and aliases to facilitate identification and enforcement of counter-terrorism measures. It covers groups from multiple regions including the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, and Southeast Asia, as well as white supremacist organizations in Canada.

Canadians would be worse off if this regulation was deleted because it provides essential legal framework for identifying and preventing terrorist activities, enabling law enforcement to disrupt organized violence, protect public safety, and maintain national security. Without these designations, authorities would lack the tools to effectively track and counter groups that have demonstrated willingness to use violence against civilians and democratic institutions.

Withdraws specific tracts of land in Nunavut from disposal for 10 years to facilitate Indigenous land agreement negotiations, with exceptions for existing rights and quarrying.

Deletion would risk speculative claims and resource competition that could undermine negotiations, leading to prolonged legal uncertainty and potentially decades of development restrictions; the temporary freeze is a necessary compromise to achieve lasting property rights clarity.

Provides fee remission for passports, citizenship certificates, permanent resident travel documents, and emergency travel documents for Canadian citizens/permanent residents affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and for Ukrainian nationals, with applications submitted between Feb 22, 2022 and March 31, 2023 (or March 14, 2022 for Ukrainian nationals).

Obsolete: the application periods have expired. Retaining dead-letter regulations creates confusion and may inadvertently signal ongoing eligibility, adding administrative burden without any functional benefit.

This regulation provides fee remission for replacement travel and citizenship documents lost, damaged, or destroyed due to the Port of Beirut explosions between August 13, 2020 and January 31, 2021. It covers passports, citizenship certificates, permanent resident documents, and emergency travel documents, waiving fees under specific conditions including proof of loss and declaration of Beirut-related circumstances.

Temporary emergency fee remission creates moral hazard and administrative complexity. While appearing compassionate, it encourages fraud through declaration-based claims, distorts market signals for document security services, and creates unequal treatment between disaster victims and those who lose documents through other circumstances. The unseen costs include reduced incentive for individuals to secure valuable documents and potential abuse of the system.

Temporary fee remission for British Columbia flood victims replacing lost/damaged travel documents (passports, citizenship certificates, PR cards) between Nov 2021-May 2022. Requires proof of BC residency during floods and declaration that loss resulted from flooding.

Deleting would force natural disaster victims to pay replacement fees for essential identity documents lost through no fault of their own. This temporary relief addresses an acute humanitarian need without creating ongoing regulatory burden. Charging flood victims for necessities compounds their hardship and serves no legitimate policy purpose.

This regulation grants fee remission for replacement of passports, citizenship certificates, permanent resident cards, and other identity documents lost or damaged due to Hurricane Fiona, applicable only to individuals in Quebec or Atlantic provinces during the period September 24, 2022 to March 24, 2023.

Obsolete: time-limited window expired. Original flaw: arbitrary, disaster-specific fee waiver that undermines uniform fee structure and creates precedent for ad hoc relief.

Schedule listing allergens and their derivatives that must be labeled on registered pest control products under the Pest Control Products Act.

Mandatory allergen labeling imposes compliance costs, creates a static government standard that may lag scientific knowledge, and distorts market provision of information. The requirement is unnecessary because liability and competitive incentives already compel firms to disclose allergens to meet consumer demand and avoid harm.