Federal regulations

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 an automatic approval process for routine maintenance and repair work on classified municipal drains in Ontario, eliminating the need for municipalities to apply to Fisheries and Oceans Canada for project-specific review under the Fisheries Act, provided they follow prescribed conditions.

This Order allows Health Canada to accept drug approval decisions or review documents from trusted foreign regulatory authorities (such as those in Australia, the UK, or Switzerland) as satisfying part of its own review requirements, so that certain new drugs already approved abroad can reach the Canadian market faster without a full duplicate review.

This regulation updates Canada's Motor Vehicle Safety Regulations by replacing outdated vehicle anti-theft immobilization system standards with newer versions that address modern electronic theft tools, aligning Canadian requirements with the latest international standards.

These regulations update a series of existing federal regulations across the Food and Drugs Act, Patent Act, Tobacco and Vaping Products Act, and Cannabis Act to align them with a new standalone Clinical Trials Regulations framework, removing outdated clinical trial provisions and cross-referencing the new rules.

These new stand-alone Clinical Trials Regulations replace the existing drug clinical trial framework under the Food and Drug Regulations, directly regulating how clinical trials involving pharmaceutical and biologic drugs are conducted in Canada — not just the importation and sale of trial drugs — and introducing a flexible, risk-based authorization system that includes tools like terms and conditions, expanded investigator roles, and support for decentralized trials.

This regulation extends the temporary sulphur compliance unit (SCU) trading system for Canadian gasoline refiners and importers from 2026 to 2030, allowing them to generate, trade, and bank credits to help meet the 10 parts per million sulphur limit in gasoline rather than having to comply with that limit directly at all times.

This regulation removes the ban on manufacturing, importing, and selling six categories of single-use plastics (checkout bags, cutlery, certain foodservice ware, ring carriers, stir sticks, and straws) specifically for the purpose of export, while keeping all existing domestic market prohibitions in place.

These regulations modernize Canada's insolvency system by updating the Bankruptcy and Insolvency General Rules and the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Regulations to allow digital communications and recordkeeping, raise fee thresholds for Licensed Insolvency Trustees (LITs), and increase the asset and debt limits that qualify debtors for streamlined insolvency proceedings.

This regulation formalizes and expands a free-flow transit process for international travellers connecting through Canadian airports, eliminating the requirement for those passengers to interact with CBSA officers or kiosks as long as they remain in a designated transit area. It also requires airlines to provide additional passenger data identifying whether travellers are entering Canada or transiting through to another international destination.

This regulation amends Canada's immigration rules to clarify that international transit passengers who remain in 'designated holding areas' (in addition to existing sterile transit areas) at Canadian airports are exempt from normal immigration examination requirements, and updates data collection rules for transit passengers.

This regulation is the second of two major update packages to Canada's Explosives Regulations, 2013, modernizing safety and security rules for the explosives industry by introducing a mandatory transport permit for carriers hauling explosives by road, requiring propellant powder retailers to register with NRCan, updating fees across all licence and permit categories, and clarifying or streamlining dozens of existing requirements for manufacturers, storers, transporters, and sellers of explosives.

These regulations modernize Canada's Medical Device Establishment Licensing (MDEL) framework by removing the requirement for foreign distributors to hold their own MDEL when their Canadian importer already holds one, requiring all importers and distributors to mandatorily submit supplier information annually, and making explicit the obligation to establish, implement, and maintain documented safety procedures.

This regulation amends Payments Canada's compliance by-law to introduce a faster, streamlined investigation process for simple or uncontested rule violations, and increases the maximum penalty per contravention from $250,000 to $1,000,000 for the first time since 1998.

This regulation updates the rules for who can serve as an independent director on Payments Canada's Board of Directors, expanding the eligible pool of candidates and shortening the required waiting period before former industry insiders can qualify.

This by-law amendment expands the list of counterparties that are exempt from contractual stay provisions in eligible financial contracts, adding foreign government departments and agencies, and multilateral development banks (like the World Bank) to the exemption list, while also extending the compliance deadline to October 1, 2028.

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.

This Order suspends the application of federal methane regulations in Alberta for 2025–2030, recognizing that Alberta's own provincial methane rules achieve equivalent or better emission reductions for the upstream oil and gas sector, thereby eliminating duplicate regulatory requirements for Alberta operators.

These amendments eliminate the controlled migratory bird hunt program and entrance fees at the Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area (near Québec City), since biological monitoring shows the marsh the hunt was designed to protect is now healthy, and free access aligns the area with all other National Wildlife Areas across Canada.

These amendments tighten Canada's rules around chemical precursors used to make illegal drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine, requiring businesses that handle these chemicals to report suspicious transactions to Health Canada within 72 hours, screen employees for drug-related criminal records, and restricting where cold/decongestant products containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine can be sold. The changes also require importers of pill press component parts (punches, moulds, and dies) to register those parts with Health Canada before bringing them into Canada.