Canadian Federal Regulation

As discussed in this legal Encyclopedia, regulations are made under the authority of a statute, for the purpose of specifying the detailed implementation of the provisions of the statute. The statute becomes known, in relation to its regulations, as the “enabling statute” or the “enabling act.”

It is important to note the difference in the origin, status, and judicial treatment of statutes and regulations. Statutes are enacted by bodies of elected representatives, they supersede any common law doctrines with which they may be in conflict, and disputes that arise out of violations of them are dealt with in accordance with standard procedures established by other statutes and are administered by the courts.

Regulations, on the other hand, are made by the Governor General in Council under a federal statute, by a government minister, or by a statutorily-created administrative body. Disputes that arise out of their administration are initially dealt with by procedures that may be established by the regulations themselves, although appeals to the courts are often available. When a dispute involves federal regulations, resort is to the Federal Court of Canada. The ultimate appeal in disputes involving regulations is, like that of disputes involving statutes, the Supreme Court of Canada.

In most Canadian jurisdictions, a statute provides for the publication of regulations. The relevant statute for federal regulations is the Statutory Instruments Act , R.S.C. 1985, c. S-22.

Finding A Federal Regulation

To have the force of law most regulations made under the authority of a federal statute must be published in the Canada Gazette, Part II . Federal regulations that have been published up to December 31, 1977, are consolidated in a series called Consolidated Regulations of Canada , 1978, which includes:

• 18 volumes of regulations , ordered alphabetically under the enabling act. The acts themselves are alphabetically ordered by short title. The volumes are numbered consecutively, and each volume has its own table of contents.
• Table of Contents , which lists all the regulations, and the page number at which each can be found, as well as a schedule of regulations that have been wholly or partially revoked, have expired or been superseded, or have no general application.
• Special Issue in two volumes, which re-publishes regulations that appeared in 1978, along with amendments or revocations of regulations found in the consolidation.
• Federal regulations and amendments to regulations made subsequent to the C.R.C. are cited by reference to The Canada Gazette, Part II . Bound copies of this part of the Gazette are found following the C.R.C. on the shelf. The most recent copies of the Gazette are in soft cover.

Unless otherwise specified, a federal regulation comes into force on the day it was registered, which is noted both at the top of the text and in the Canada Gazette, Part II in the Index , at the back of each Gazette . A regulation exempt from registration comes into force on the day it was made.

Consolidated Index of Statutory Instruments , a quarterly issue of the Canada Gazette Part II is the official source for finding federal regulations. It lists all the regulations from 1955 to the present consolidation that are still in force. It contains two tables:

• Table I is an alphabetical listing of all regulations, statutory instruments and other documents that were made pursuant to the enabling act and that are still in force.
• Table II is an alphabetical listing of all federal statutes along with location of regulations and other documents made pursuant to them. The documents and regulations that are exempt from publication and registration in the Canada Gazette Part II are also listed under the appropriate statutes along with reference to the place where they can be inspected and obtained.

The remainder of this section tells you how to find a federal regulation given the title of the regulation . There are two methods:

Method 1: Canada Gazette, Part II

• Consult Table I of the Consolidated Index of Statutory Instruments to learn the title of the enabling statute under which the regulation was made.
• Locate the enabling statute in Table II. The Acts are listed alphabetically in upper case and the regulations and other documents made pursuant to them are listed below each act in lower case. If the regulation is contained in C.R.C. 1978 , it will provide citation of the C.R.C . location. For regulations made since the C.R.C. 1978 was published, the citation would be a location in the Canada Gazette Part II . If a regulation has been amended, then each amended section is followed by the citation of the amending regulation and amending section.
• Look up the regulation and amendments in the places indicated.
• To update your research, consult all the biweekly issues of the Canada Gazette Part II issued after the latest Consolidated Index . At the end of each issue is an index of regulations contained in the issue. Check this index to see if your regulation is listed there.

Method 2: Canada Regulations Index

• Consult the most recent volume of the Canada Regulations Index . Check the main index under the name of the relevant Act which lists all regulations published in the Canada Gazette up to the end of the previous year.
• Check the monthly supplementary index on the coloured pages at the beginning of each volume of the Canada Regulations Index.
• Look up the regulation and amendments in the places indicated by the Index.