Someone builds a dangerous new device and asks you to trust them and everyone else who will use it in the coming years. You don’t know who will get to use this device, or to what end. This information is provided on page 300 of a 600-page document. Deeply worried? So are we.
Introduced in Bill C-15, a budget-implementation legislation, that “device” is an unprecedented power given to federal ministers to exempt virtually any entity from all federal laws and regulations—except the Criminal Code. In other words, “no one is above the law”…unless a federal minister decides otherwise.
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The federal government is trying to downplay concerns by comparing this extraordinary new power to the use of so-called “regulatory sandboxes.” Regulatory sandboxes are targeted, highly transparent, tightly controlled and temporary environments for testing new technology to better understand their implications without facing strict legal liability. They have been precisely designed this way in Canada, Europe, South America, and elsewhere to be used in specific areas of public policy such as fintech, vehicle safety, aeronautics, innovative legal services and privacy protection.
Alas, the federal government is not identifying a list of specific regulatory hurdles that are ill-adapted to a new set of technologies and can be waived to allow small-scale pilots. Instead, the government is giving itself the sweeping power to sideline almost all federal laws and regulations, including the Canada Labour Code, our two federal privacy laws, the Hazardous Products Act and the Explosives Act.
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While Bill C-15’s new power is temporary—it has a six-year cap—it has none of the other essential characteristics of a regulatory sandbox, nor is it limited to innovation.
Far from creating a regulatory sandbox, the federal government is designing a potentially boundless desert where any person, company, or individual, private or public, of any size, in any industry, in any sector, could seek authorization to bypass federal laws in the name of “competitiveness” or “economic growth.”
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Laws adopted by democratically elected officials should not be seen as an inconvenience. Some of them are the result of hundreds of years of advocacy, debate, and hard-won reform. While laws must be capable of adapting as values evolve and as new challenges emerge, they also need to remain grounded in collective experience and respect values that have long defined the social contract—such as justice, dignity, and fairness. Canada’s core fabric, including its economy, climate action, health and environment are all at risk if the laws that structure and protect them can so easily be set aside by the executive branch of government.
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Long ago, the people of Canada decided that a small group of people in a position of power should not make decisions behind closed doors that benefit the select few who have their ear. Division 5 of Bill C-15’s Part 5 directly threatens this fundamental principle. For the sake of our democracy, and for as many reasons as we have laws, this division must be removed from Bill C-15.
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