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TORONTO – The CCF is concerned that a provision in Bill C-15 would give federal ministers the power to exempt any individual or business from almost any law for up to six years, seriously threatening the rule of law in Canada.

Section 12 of Bill C-15, the budget implementation act, states that a minister can exempt any individual, business or other organization from any existing law or regulation other than the Criminal Code, with very few limits.

Ministers would be allowed to create these exemptions so long as they assert that the exemptions are in the public interest, would enable certain goals like “testing a new regulatory regime” aimed at “innovation, competitiveness or economic growth,” the benefits in their view outweigh the risks, and measures will be taken to protect health, safety and the environment.

Unlike most orders and regulations, which must be published in the Canada Gazette within 30 days, the minister would only be required to notify the public about the decision “as soon as feasible.”

The minister would be allowed to keep secret any information about the order that the minister decides would be “inappropriate” to make public.

Some examples of the risks section 12 poses include that it could:

• Allow the government to enter into contracts with individuals where doing so would otherwise violate the Conflict of Interest Act;  
• Prevent citizens and journalists from seeking documents under the Access to Information Act;
• Let mining companies avoid their obligations to prevent corruption under the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act; and
• Allow preferred companies to ignore the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

CCF Counsel Josh Dehaas said that the proposal poses a serious risk to the rule of law because it violates the principle that laws are created in advance by democratically elected representatives in Parliament – not the executive.

“Section 12 would allow Prime Minister Carney and his ministers to act like dictators, greenlighting exemptions to laws for their friends and preferred corporations whenever it’s convenient for them to do so,” he said.

“Ministers shouldn’t be able to pick and choose who needs to follow the law and who gets a free pass,” he added.

CCF Executive Director Joanna Baron said that if ministers believe a law or regulation is standing in the way of innovation, competitiveness or growth, they can work with their elected colleagues to repeal the law or regulation.

Baron called the proposal “part of a concerning pattern.”

“Much like we saw with Bill C-5, the Building Canada Act, the government has decided some companies will have to follow the onerous rules set out in laws like the Impact Assessment Act while others will get a free pass,” Baron added.

The CCF is intervening in Alberta’s new challenge to the Impact Assessment Act. In 2023, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Impact Assessment Act gave Ottawa an unconstitutional veto over major projects like mines and roads that are within provincial jurisdiction under the Constitution Act, 1867. The federal government has since made only minor changes, prompting Alberta to ask the Alberta Court of Appeal to revisit the issue. The CCF will argue that the tweaks made to the act do not render it constitutional.