Ministerial Exemption Act

What It Does

Buried inside a 400-page budget implementation bill, Bill C-15 makes amendments to the Red Tape Reduction Act that grant federal ministers the power to exempt any individual, corporation, or government department from complying with virtually any federal law, with the sole exception of the Criminal Code. Ministers can invoke this power using concerningly vague justifications like "competitiveness," with minimal oversight and no requirement to justify the exemption publicly. Passed the House by only 5 votes (168–163) and received Royal Assent on March 26, 2026.

Primary Concerns

• Ministers can now legally excuse corporations from complying with environmental laws, labour standards, Indigenous rights protections, privacy law, and public health regulations, at their own discretion
• The only law exempt from exemption is the Criminal Code, meaning corporate conduct that falls short of criminal can be fully pardoned by a minister with a phone call
• Justification threshold is "competitiveness", a term so vague it provides no meaningful limit on ministerial discretion
• Buried inside a 400-page budget bill, bypassing the scrutiny a standalone bill would have received
• Over 100 legal scholars, human rights experts, Indigenous leaders, and civil society organizations signed an open letter warning it "threatens Canada's democratic foundations"
• Ecojustice: "If our government can provide backdoor exemptions whenever compliance is inconvenient, our environmental and health laws become riddled with loopholes"
• Canadian Civil Liberties Association: the powers "directly threaten the fundamental principle of democratic decision-making"
• No sunset clause, no mandatory review. The power is permanent and accumulates with every future minister
• Creates a two-tier legal system: ordinary Canadians are bound by the law; well-connected corporations can be quietly released from it

Sources