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A regulation is the manifestation of a legislative power conferred by Parliament on the executive branch of government.
The Statutory Instruments Act (R.S., 1985, C. S-22) defines the term regulations and establishes the basic legal process the federal government must follow when developing regulations:
"To be a regulation, an instrument must be:
- a statutory instrument that is made in the exercise of a legislative power conferred by or under an Act of Parliament, or
- a statutory instrument for the contravention of which a penalty, fine or imprisonment is prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament,
- a rule, order or regulation governing the practice or procedure in any proceeding before a judicial or quasi-judicial body established by or under an Act of Parliament; or
- an instrument described as a regulation in any Act of Parliament."
A copy of every regulation proposed to be made by the Minister or the Governor in Council under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 is published by the Minister in Part I of the Canada Gazette, Canada's official parliamentary journal. This publication is a statement that indicates the manner in which the Ministers (of the Environment and Health) intend to develop a proposed regulation.
Within 60 days after the publication of a proposed regulation, any person, including a representative of the government of any country that would be affected by or benefit from it, may file with the Minister written comments on the proposed regulation. Alternatively, a notice of objection may be filed with the Minister requesting that a Board of Review be established and stating the reasons for the objection.
A proposed regulation is only published once in Part I of the Canada Gazette, regardless of whether or not it is altered during the 60-day public consultation period following its publication. Once a proposed regulation has been finalized, the final official regulation is published in Part II of the Canada Gazette.
Canada Gazette notices, orders and regulations are presented in three formats: Adobe PDF format, HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and ASCII (American Standard for Computer Information Interchange). The on-line PDF format of the Canada Gazette is official as of April 1, 2003. The electronic versions of the Canada Gazette, Parts I, II and III prior to April 1, 2003, are not the official publications. For all purposes of interpreting and applying the law, users should consult the appropriate official publication (PDF from April 1, 2003 or print prior to April 1, 2003) of the Canada Gazette, Parts I, II and III.
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