Browse regulations

Regulation prohibits transfer of flammable liquids or compressed flammable gases between railway rolling stock and stationary bulk storage facilities except under strict electrical bonding, grounding, and isolation specifications, including requirements for electrical connections, track bonding, grounding rods, insulated rail joints, and distances from power lines.

Overly-prescriptive technical requirements create rigid compliance costs, stifle innovation with modern safety technologies, and add unnecessary regulatory burden to railway operations; safety can be achieved through liability, insurance standards, and principles-based regulations that allow flexible, evolving best practices.

This regulation imposes height restrictions on buildings, structures, and natural growth within defined imaginary surfaces (approach, outer, and transitional surfaces) surrounding St. Andrews Airport in Manitoba. It also prohibits using affected lands for waste disposal that attracts birds. The goal is to prevent obstructions and wildlife hazards that could compromise aviation safety during aircraft takeoff and landing.

This regulation constitutes an uncompensated taking of property rights through restrictive zoning that devalues private land without market-based justification. While aviation safety is legitimate, this command-and-control approach creates hidden costs: it suppresses productive use of land, creates regulatory barriers to development, and centralizes decision-making that could be better handled through private liability and market pricing. The same safety outcomes could be achieved more efficiently through tort law (holding airports liable for crashes caused by obstructions), insurance requirements that price risk appropriately, or voluntary easement purchases from landowners. The regulation assumes government planners can optimally determine acceptable risk and land use, ignoring the dispersed knowledge and voluntary coordination potential of market mechanisms. Additionally, it concentrates benefits (airport operations) on specific parties while dispersing costs across many landowners, creating inefficient incentives for both over-regulation of airports and under-utilization of surrounding land.

Zoning regulations for Smithers Airport establishing protected airspace zones to ensure aviation safety by restricting building heights and land use near the airport

Aviation safety requires protected airspace around airports to prevent collisions with aircraft during takeoff and landing. Without these height restrictions, buildings and structures could interfere with flight paths, creating catastrophic risks. The bird control provisions also protect against bird strikes, a documented aviation hazard. While these regulations limit property rights, the alternative would be significantly increased aviation accidents and potential loss of life.

Grants legal capacities and privileges/immunities to INTELSAT (International Telecommunications Satellite Organization) in Canada, including corporate status, tax exemptions, and diplomatic-like privileges for representatives and officials, based on UN Convention and specific Protocol agreements.

International organizations facilitating global telecommunications infrastructure require legal protections to operate effectively across borders. Without these privileges, INTELSAT would face tax burdens, legal liabilities, and operational restrictions that would impair its ability to provide satellite communications services that benefit Canadian citizens and businesses.

Government loan, insurance, and contribution program targeting specific manufacturing sectors (rubber footwear, leather, textiles, clothing, sporting goods) and businesses in designated communities or facing international competition. Provides co-loans (up to 50%), loan insurance (up to 90-100%), and grants for consultants/product development/restructuring (up to 50-75% of costs). Requires demonstration of inability to obtain private financing.

This industrial subsidy program violates free-market principles by distorting capital allocation through government picking winners. It props up enterprises that cannot secure private financing—the market's vital price signal indicating inefficient resource use. Taxpayers bear the risk of losses while protected firms face reduced competitive pressure to innovate. The program creates moral hazard, geographic favoritism, and administrative bloat, ultimately misallocating resources that would yield higher productivity if deployed through voluntary market exchange.

Establishes a Foreign Claims Commission to adjudicate and compensate Canadian citizens for property expropriated by Cuba (1959-1980) from a settlement fund paid by Cuba. Includes eligibility rules, filing deadlines (all long expired), award caps ($1M), and payment distribution mechanisms.

All claim deadlines passed in 1980-81; this historical artifact serves no practical purpose. Maintaining it creates unnecessary administrative burden and regulatory clutter for a completed international settlement. Any residual matters could be handled via standard government processes without dedicated regulations.

This regulation allows IAC Limited to bypass shareholder approval for its proposed amalgamation with Continental Bank of Canada, contrary to standard Bank Act requirements.

Bypassing shareholder voting rights undermines corporate governance and property rights. Shareholders should have the fundamental right to approve major corporate decisions like amalgamations, regardless of convenience to management. This regulation creates a dangerous precedent for regulatory override of basic shareholder protections.

Zoning regulations for Winnipeg International Airport that restrict building heights, natural growth, and waste disposal within approach, outer, and transitional surfaces to ensure aviation safety.

Aviation safety requires clear airspace for aircraft approaches and departures. Without these height restrictions, tall structures could create collision hazards, and bird-attracting waste could increase bird strike risks, potentially causing catastrophic accidents.

Aviation safety zoning for Inuvik Airport prohibits structures exceeding defined imaginary surfaces (approach, outer, transitional) within 4000m radius and bans bird-attracting waste disposal.

This regulation imposes an uncompensated taking of property rights across a vast area, destroying land values and preventing productive uses based on a rigid standard that ignores actual risk and local knowledge. It creates deadweight losses, stifles regional development, and expands bureaucratic power—all while safety can be achieved through less restrictive mechanisms like targeted permits, NOTAMs, and liability rules that respect liberty.

Fort Simpson Airport Zoning Regulations prohibit construction and natural growth that penetrates defined aviation obstruction surfaces (approach, outer, transitional) around the airport, and forbid waste disposal that could attract birds, to ensure airspace safety for aircraft takeoff and landing operations within a 4000m radius of the airport reference point.

Deleting these regulations would endanger aircraft operations by allowing obstructions in critical flight paths, risking catastrophic crashes that harm passengers, crew, and the public. The regulation achieves a clear safety outcome that voluntary coordination or tort law cannot effectively provide due to the diffuse nature of the risk and the difficulty of preventing harm before it occurs.

Regulation authorizes the Minister of Industry to make direct loans to Consolidated Computer Inc. (max $11.3M) and provide loan insurance to private lenders for loans to Consolidated Computer Inc., Financeco Limited, and Finecomp Inc. (max $43.5M).

Corporate welfare for three named companies distorts markets, misallocates capital, creates moral hazard, and Pick winners/losers through political favoritism rather than competitive merit. Taxpayers subsidize private businesses without public benefit, undermining liberty and fair competition.

Grants the Great Lakes Fishery Commission legal corporate status and UN Convention-style immunities and privileges in Canada to enable its binational fishery management functions.

Deletion would undermine the Commission's ability to manage the shared Great Lakes fishery, risking environmentally destructive unilateral actions and harming Canadian fishers who rely on sustainable cooperation with the US.

The B.C. Tree Fruit Export Regulations establish a marketing board monopoly, designating B.C. Tree Fruits Limited as the sole agency for exporting all tree fruits grown in British Columbia. The regulations grant the Board extensive powers to require information from producers, authorize searches of vehicles, and seize products that violate Board orders. No person may market or transport regulated products for export without Agency or Board authorization.

This regulation violates fundamental principles of liberty and property rights by creating a government-enforced export monopoly. The Board's powers to search vehicles and seize products without due process are incompatible with free society. The monopoly eliminates competition, distorts market incentives, reduces farmers' freedom to seek best prices, and likely suppresses innovation and efficiency. The hidden costs include bureaucratic overhead, potential corruption, and a culture where producers depend on state-directed marketing rather than market-driven decisions. This is precisely the type of central planning that Mises, Hayek, and Friedman warned destroys prosperity.

Regulation establishes rules for National Historic Parks governing wildlife protection, domestic animal control, firearm possession, and park usage. Prohibits hunting, disturbing wildlife, and imposes strict leash/containment rules on pets. Grants superintendents broad powers to issue permits, prohibit animals, order removal, and impound/destroy domestic animals. Includes arbitrary restrictions like 4.5-volt light limitation and extreme enforcement measures.

Keeping this regulation imposes significant costs: arbitrary restrictions like the 4.5-volt light ban and rigid 3-meter leash length create unnecessary compliance burdens and reduce enjoyment of public spaces; the firearm prohibitions endanger visitors by preventing defensive weapons against wildlife; and the expansive seizure/destruction powers over pets represent regulatory overreach. The unseen costs include chilling park visitation, unnecessary harm to pet owners, and opportunity costs of complex administration. Core wildlife protection goals could be achieved with far simpler, proportionate rules.

The Newfoundland Railway Reimbursement Regulations authorize the Minister of Transport to reimburse Canadian National Railway for 80-100% of employee benefit costs incurred during 1985-1993 for employees whose positions were eliminated on or before March 31, 1986, under specific job security and material change agreements. The regulation establishes reimbursement mechanisms and requires record-keeping for audit purposes.

This regulation is obsolete (reimbursement period ended 1993) and keeping it imposes regulatory clutter, creates legal uncertainty, and perpetuates a harmful precedent of government subsidizing private corporate restructuring costs. Such interventions distort market incentives, create moral hazard, and violate principles of limited government and individual responsibility that are essential for prosperity and liberty.