Federal regulations

This regulation establishes new application requirements for Canadian companies seeking licences or permits to export oil, gas, or electricity under the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, replacing outdated National Energy Board rules with streamlined requirements focused only on the criteria the CER is legally required to consider.

This Order designates the Sarvarjuaq area of northern Baffin Bay (approximately 80,000 km²) as a Marine Protected Area under the Oceans Act, freezing the footprint of human activities in the area for up to five years while longer-term protection options, including an Inuit-led Protected and Conserved Area, are explored.

This regulation designates 56.3 hectares of six Nova Scotia islands (Big Fish Island, Green Island, Guyon Island, Hog Island, Three Top Island, and Whitehead Island) as the Atlantic Archipelago National Wildlife Area, prohibiting entry and a broad range of activities without a permit to protect migratory birds, species at risk, and their habitats.

This order repeals the old Railway Employee Qualification Standards Regulations (in place since 1987), replacing them with the new Railway Personnel Training and Qualifications Regulations, which will come into force at the same time.

This regulation updates Canada's aircraft registration rules by clarifying and modernizing about 70 provisions in the Canadian Aviation Regulations (Part II), and raises aircraft registration service fees for the first time since 1996 to shift more of the program's costs from taxpayers onto aircraft owners and operators who benefit directly from the services.

These regulations lower the criminal interest rate for most loans in Canada to 35% APR, exempt certain commercial loans and pawn loans from the new lower rate, and set a national cap of $14 per $100 borrowed for payday loans along with a maximum $20 dishonoured cheque fee.

This regulation increases the mandatory nuclear liability insurance limits that nuclear facility operators in Canada must carry, adjusts limits for lower-risk installations to account for inflation, and creates a new liability limit category for small modular reactors (SMRs) that scales with their thermal power output.

These regulations require certain international air carriers operating to and from Canada to create, implement, and maintain a written Security Program for Air Carriers (SPAC), bringing Canada into alignment with ICAO international aviation security standards that it has been out of compliance with since a 2016 audit finding.

This regulation consolidates Canada's three separate vessel traffic reporting rules (VTSZR, ECAREG, and NORDREG) into a single, modernized set of requirements that all vessels of 300 gross tonnes or more must follow when entering, leaving, or travelling within Canadian coastal and northern waters. It standardizes reporting formats to match international standards, requires 24-hour advance notice nationwide (including the Arctic), and legally incorporates the Canadian Coast Guard's Radio Aids to Marine Navigation document so reporting details can be updated quickly without going through a full regulatory amendment.

These regulations expand Canada's anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing (AML/ATF) framework by bringing factoring companies, cheque-cashing businesses, and financing/leasing entities under federal oversight for the first time, while also requiring traders to declare goods at the border for money laundering purposes, enabling voluntary information sharing between financial institutions, and requiring regulated entities to report discrepancies in corporate beneficial ownership records.

These regulations require energy companies that charge tolls (pipeline and related infrastructure companies regulated by the Canadian Energy Regulator) to submit quarterly and monthly financial and traffic reports to the Regulator, replacing the previous Toll Information Regulations from 1979.

These amendments strengthen Canada's plant breeders' rights (PBR) system by narrowing the 'farmers' privilege' exemption so it no longer applies to fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, and hybrid varieties; extending PBR protection from 20 to 25 years for potatoes, asparagus, and woody plants; and reducing red tape around applications, including a discounted fee for filing online.

These regulations create an administrative monetary penalties (AMP) system allowing the Commissioner of Official Languages to fine Air Canada, VIA Rail, Marine Atlantic, and designated airport authorities up to $50,000 when they fail to provide services in both English and French as required under the Official Languages Act.

This regulation creates a temporary four-year exemption allowing livestock producers and provincially licensed slaughter establishments to trade raw red meat across provincial borders without a federal SFC licence, when there is a proven shortage of nearby slaughter capacity. It also fixes unnecessary inspection fee charges for continuous meat processing activities like freezing, and clears up ambiguity about when federal food safety rules apply to products made under an SFC licence.

These amendments update Canada's PCB Regulations to grant deferrals and new exemptions allowing certain organizations — nuclear facilities, coal-fired power plants closing by 2029, the Department of National Defence, and museums — to continue using or storing PCB-containing equipment beyond existing deadlines, while also clarifying that diluting PCB oil to lower its concentration to avoid disposal requirements is prohibited.

This Order suspends the application of federal coal-fired electricity emissions regulations in Saskatchewan for 2025 and 2026, based on a renewed equivalency agreement confirming that Saskatchewan's own provincial electricity regulations will achieve greenhouse gas emission outcomes equivalent to the federal rules.

These regulations ban the use and carriage of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) as fuel by vessels operating in Arctic and Antarctic waters, bringing Canadian domestic law into line with international MARPOL treaty obligations that have been in force globally since 2011 (Antarctic) and 2024 (Arctic). They also add administrative monetary penalties for non-compliance.

This regulation increases Canada Post's regulated postage rates for domestic letters, US-bound mail, and international letter-post items, as well as the domestic registered mail fee, effective May 6, 2024, to help offset inflation-driven operating cost increases.

This regulation applies the Pay Equity Act to Ministers' Offices by grouping them together and treating them as a single employer for the purpose of creating and maintaining a pay equity plan, with special rules for transitions when a new Prime Minister or minister is appointed.

This regulation exempts food businesses in Alberta and Saskatchewan from federal interprovincial trade requirements when selling or moving food within the city of Lloydminster, treating the border-straddling city as if it were located entirely within one province.