Legislative summaries

Bill C-39 (short title: Building Canada Strong Act) has three parts. Part 1 amends various Acts respecting impact assessments, permitting and other environmental issues in the project review process. Part 2 amends various Acts respecting transportation related to marine ports, trade corridors, approval processes and security clearances. Part 3 amends the Canada Labour Code and the Wage Earner Protection Program Act respecting the collective bargaining process and workplace relations, employee benefit rules and wage recovery in federally regulated private sector industries.

Among other things, Bill C-37: affirms that First Nations’ inherent right of self-government includes jurisdiction over water, drinking water, source water, wastewater and related infrastructure on, in and under lands reserved for First Nations (First Nation lands); establishes principles for decision making regarding water services on First Nation lands; establishes minimum standards for water service provision on First Nation lands; and establishes a federal regulatory regime regarding water services on First Nation lands.

Bill C-230 amends the Financial Administration Act (FAA) to require that the President of the Treasury Board establish and maintain a public registry of debts and obligations owed by corporations, trust companies and partnerships to His Majesty that were subject to a deletion of $2,000,000 or more. The registry must include the debtor’s name (including the business name); the amount that was deleted; the type of debt deletion; the fiscal year in which the debt, obligation or claim was deleted; the instrument or act under which the debt, obligation or claim arose and the Act under which it was deleted. According to the bill’s sponsor, the purpose of the bill is for the government to demonstrate greater transparency toward taxpayers in terms of debts and obligations that corporations, trust companies and partnerships owed to the government and that have been deleted, at a time when the number and total amount of such debts and obligations are increasing significantly.

Bill S-214 amends the Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA) to establish a framework for the disposal of foreign state assets that is consistent with the principle of sovereign immunity and Canada’s State Immunity Act. To this end, the bill establishes an executive process for the federal government to dispose of foreign state assets seized under SEMA without a judicial order. The bill would preserve the existing judicial process under SEMA for the disposal of private assets.

Bill C-34 is divided into two parts. In Part 1, Bill C-34 enacts the Digital Safety Act, which is intended to promote safety, reduce online harms and ensure transparency and accountability on the part of regulated social media, chatbots and certain other online services, particularly with respect to children. Part 2 of the bill enacts the Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act, which establishes the Commission as well as its powers, duties and functions, and makes consequential amendments to other Acts.

Bill C-36 creates a new law, the Protecting Privacy and Consumer Data Act (PPCDA). The bill also repeals Part 1 of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), changes the short title of that Act to the Electronic Documents Act, and makes consequential amendments to other Acts.

Bill C-35, which is designed to strengthen Canada’s ban on imported goods produced using forced labour, amends the Customs Tariff to repeal its forced labour provisions. Among other things, the Ban on Importing Goods made with Forced Labour Act enables the Government of Canada to establish a list of goods suspected of being produced using forced labour, creates cost-recovery penalties to be imposed on importers and – if any – the non-importing owners of such goods, and enhances the Canada Border Services Agency’s (CBSA) ability to enforce the import ban.

Bill S-205 amends the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (CCRA) to: limit an individual’s period of detention in a structured intervention unit (SIU) to 48 hours, absent a court order; allow more opportunities for individuals from marginalized groups to benefit from the provision of plans and support services related to release into the community; and provide a mechanism for sentence reduction where there has been unfairness in the administration of an individual’s sentence, among other things.

The bill has four parts: Part 1 of Bill C-31 amends the Income Tax Act (ITA) and the Income Tax Regulations (ITR) to: provide temporary immediate expensing for eligible manufacturing or processing buildings; deliver automatic federal benefits for lower-income individuals; expand the anti-avoidance rule for direct trust to-trust transfers to include indirect transfers of trust property to other trusts; limit the deferral of tax on investment income resulting from the use of tiered corporate structures with mismatched year ends; clarify the expenses that qualify as Canadian exploration expenses; implement the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework; remove bankrupt corporations, trusts and partnerships from the exception to the debt forgiveness rules; introduce a supplementary rule to strengthen the tax debt anti-avoidance rule; expand the clean hydrogen investment tax credit to include hydrogen produced from methane pyrolysis as an eligible production pathway; enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of information gathering during tax audits; provide that no Canada Carbon Rebate payments will be made in respect of tax returns, or adjustment requests, filed after 30 October 2026; simplify, streamline and harmonize the qualified investment rules; and make a number of technical amendments, including to correct inconsistencies and to better align the law with its intended policy objectives. Part 1 of Bill C-31 also amends the Excise Tax Act (ETA), the Air Travellers Security Act, the Excise Act, 2001 and the Select Luxury Items Tax Act in relation to certain measures of the ITA, and the Income Tax Conventions Implementation Act, 1996, which suspends the operation of the Canada–Russia Income Tax Agreement (clauses 2 to 143). Part 2 amends the Global Minimum Tax Act (GMTA) to implement the Undertaxed Profits Rule (UTPR) that subjects the Canadian constituent entities of certain Multinational Enterprise (MNE) groups to top-up tax in respect of the low-taxed profits of constituent entities of those MNE groups not already subject to an Income Inclusion Rule (IIR) or qualified domestic minimum top-up tax, implement certain aspects of the administrative guidance in respect of the GloBE Model Rules approved by the Inclusive Framework and published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and implement a number of technical amendments to correct mistakes or inconsistencies and to better align the GMTA with its intended policy objectives. It also makes amendments to the Access to Information Act, the Income Tax Conventions Interpretation Act and the Tax Court of Canada Act (clauses 144 to 176). Part 3 of Bill C-31 amends the ETA, the Excise Act and related regulations to implement various measures (clauses 177 to 227). Part 4 of Bill C-31, which is divided into 17 divisions, implements various measures. It amends numerous existing Acts that cover many areas of law. It also enacts the Defence Investment Agency Act (clauses 228 to 364).

Bill S-209 enacts a new law: the Protecting Young Persons from Exposure to Pornography Act (the Act). The Act establishes a new offence prohibiting an organization from making pornographic material available to minors online for commercial purposes. The offence does not apply to organizations that incidentally provide services used to access pornographic material (e.g., search services). The Act also sets out certain defences, including that the organization used approved age-verification or age-estimation methods. In addition, the Act provides for certain regulatory enforcement mechanisms, which may result in a court blocking access to the material or in the imposition of administrative monetary penalties. Bill S-209 is a modified version of Bill S-210, an Act to restrict young persons’ online access to sexually explicit material, which was introduced during the 44th Parliament.