Browse regulations

General Import Permit allowing designated government officials and the Canadian Commercial Corporation to import arms, ammunition, and implements of war without individual permits, streamlining government defence procurement.

Deleting this regulation would force government agencies to obtain individual permits for each defence-related import, creating bureaucratic delays that could compromise national security operations and emergency response capabilities. The permit achieves efficient government procurement in a way that would be difficult to replicate without similar streamlined authority.

This obsolete regulation sets specific multiplication factors (1.35559, 1.37078 for 1983; 1.99924, 1.88464 for 1984) for adjusting excise tax indexing ratios on September 1 of those years.

Completely obsolete—applies only to two specific dates in the early 1980s that have long passed. It serves no current purpose and merely clutters the regulatory codebase. Even if excise tax indexing were sound policy, this particular prescription is dead letter with zero applicability today.

Delegates the Minister of National Revenue's powers under the Customs Act to various positions within the department, from Deputy Minister down to specific operational roles like customs inspectors and refund clerks. Specifies which statutory powers each position may exercise, with many positions having limited subsets of authority.

This is a purely administrative delegation regulation that imposes no costs or restrictions on Canadians. It provides legal certainty about which officials can exercise Ministerial powers, enabling efficient customs operations and trade facilitation. Deleting it would create confusion and potential legal challenges without advancing liberty or prosperity. The regulation can be amended over time (as shown by existing repeals) to adapt to organizational changes.

Exempts producer provinces from sections 53-65 of the Energy Administration Act, relieving them from certain federal energy regulations.

Deleting this exemption would reimpose federal regulatory burdens on energy-producing provinces, increasing compliance costs, stifling economic freedom, and reducing energy output. The order respects provincial jurisdiction over natural resources and promotes decentralization, aligning with liberty and competitiveness principles.

Regulation sets procedures for public auction or tender sales of goods abandoned to, forfeited under, or detained by the Customs Act (excluding alcohol/tobacco). Requires 'as is-where is' sales, ministerial advertising direction, sealed tenders opened before two officers, precedence for first-received equal tenders, written notice to winner, and a 7-day completion period.

Deletion would risk arbitrary, non-transparent disposal of government assets, likely costing taxpayers through undervalued sales or favoritism. The regulation ensures fair competition and legal certainty at minimal administrative cost; replicating this through ad hoc contracts or litigation would be far more expensive and unpredictable, undermining public trust and efficient asset recovery.

A federal order establishing a $25 fee for participants in one-day local employer seminars hosted by Canada Employment Centres across Canada.

This fee creates an unnecessary barrier to workforce development information, reducing participation in seminars that could help employers hire and train workers. The administrative costs of collecting and processing these fees likely exceed the revenue generated, while the unseen cost is fewer businesses accessing valuable employment resources that could improve labor market efficiency.

Procedural framework for calculating, transferring, and reconciling offshore sales tax revenues between federal and Nova Scotia governments under the Canada-Nova Scotia Oil and Gas Agreement Act, including timing, adjustments, and over/underpayment treatments.

Ensures predictable, orderly intergovernmental fiscal transfers; deletion would create administrative chaos and disputes without reducing the underlying tax burden or enhancing economic liberty.

Establishes a bureaucratic process for the Minister of National Revenue to determine and disseminate official foreign exchange rates to customs ports for valuing imported goods. The rates are derived from Bank of Canada, chartered banks, or Financial Times quotes, with complex weighted averaging formulas and fallback provisions for obscure currencies.

This unnecessary bureaucratic layer duplicates functional market mechanisms, creates administrative burden, and may not reflect actual transaction rates. Customs valuation could use the exchange rate at the time of sale/shipment directly, allowing market pricing to function without government intermediation. The costs are the inefficiency of a government rate-setting apparatus that adds no value beyond what financial markets already provide.

This Order defines the baselines for determining the territorial sea in Area 7 (Canadian Arctic Islands) by specifying geographical coordinates from Canadian Hydrographic Service Charts. Straight lines join listed points for portions, while other portions use the low-water line along the coast or islands.

These baselines are fundamental to asserting Canadian sovereignty over the Arctic, securing marine resource rights, and enabling regulation of shipping and fishing. Deleting them would create legal uncertainty, risk international boundary disputes, and undermine Canada's ability to protect its strategic Arctic interests—outcomes that would be difficult to achieve without an authoritative legal definition.

Establishes forms and documentation requirements for applications to determine Canadian ownership and control rates under the Canadian Ownership and Control Determination Act and Regulations. Specifies different forms for individuals, small applicants, corporations, and certain entity types, and requires supporting documents such as financial statements, prospectuses, and ownership calculations.

Imposes discriminatory nationality-based ownership restrictions that violate property rights and voluntary exchange. The bureaucratic burden increases transaction costs, deters foreign investment, distorts capital allocation, reduces competitiveness, and undermines prosperity by restricting economic freedom.

Mandates the Minister of Justice to examine all government bills and regulations for consistency with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, requiring certification and reporting of any inconsistencies.

This regulation serves as a crucial safeguard for constitutional rights by ensuring all government legislation and regulations are vetted for Charter compliance before implementation. Without this review mechanism, unconstitutional provisions could become law, potentially violating fundamental rights and freedoms without any systematic check. The costs of removing this oversight would be severe constitutional violations that are difficult to remedy after the fact.

Regulates the transfer and loan of government-produced horse racing video/photographic materials from the Department of Agriculture's Race Track Division to contractors and associations. Requires written agreements, restricts use to specific purposes related to promoting horse racing and informing bettors, and allows the Director to terminate agreements for non-compliance.

This represents unnecessary government control over what should be a private market activity. The government is producing and monopolizing distribution of racing media through bureaucratic oversight, rather than allowing private contractors to sell/license materials on the open market. The regulation creates administrative overhead, restricts innovation in how racing information is distributed, and picks winners in the distribution process—all costs that fall on taxpayers and limit economic liberty with no public safety justification.

This regulation exempts Northern Transportation Company Limited's assets from a disposal authorization act and transfers control of various properties, rights, and interests to the Minister of Public Works and the Canadian Commercial Corporation, including real estate in Hay River and Fort McMurray, lease agreements with the US Air Force, and various equipment and vessels.

This is a narrow, legacy-specific transfer of government assets that served a particular historical purpose (likely related to northern transportation and US-Canada defense cooperation). The regulation creates unnecessary complexity by carving out exceptions to disposal rules and transferring management to specific agencies. These assets could be handled through standard property management procedures without requiring special regulatory exemptions, reducing bureaucratic overhead and allowing for more flexible, market-based solutions to asset disposition.

Regulation governs handling of mail with insufficient postage (deficient postage items). Default rule: return to sender. Exceptions: forwarded to addressee if item is redirected mail (with charge), has no return address, or addressee has written agreement to accept and pay. Addressee pays deficient postage plus Corporation-established rate. International items exempt from the additional rate.

Keeping this regulation imposes hidden costs: entrenches bureaucratic overhead in Canada Post's operations, distorts market incentives by penalizing senders and addressees, and prevents competitive postal services from developing efficient, customer-oriented policies for handling underpaid mail. The complexity discourages legitimate mailing activity and sustains the postal monopoly's anti-competitive behavior through regulatory capture rather than allowing private innovation. The unseen cost is the cumulative economic inefficiency from thousands of unnecessary compliance decisions, returns, and payments that would be streamlined by market forces.

This regulation establishes a Manitoba vegetable marketing board with authority to control interprovincial and export trade of potatoes, parsnips, onions, carrots, and rutabagas. The board can set levies, create marketing schemes, and exercise powers similar to provincial marketing boards in interprovincial/export markets.

This marketing board creates artificial trade barriers between provinces, restricts supply through centralized control, and imposes levies that increase costs for producers and consumers. It prevents free market pricing, reduces agricultural efficiency, and protects incumbent producers at the expense of new entrants and consumers through regulatory capture.