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	Emergency interim orders - fact sheet

News Release

May 3, 2002

Emergency interim orders - fact sheet

• Interim orders are required to enable a Minister to deal immediately with a situation that requires urgent action to protect Canada and Canadians, in response to a significant risk to health, safety or the environment.
• Interim orders are simply intended to address circumstances in which there is no time to make a regulation as the law would normally require.
• Interim orders are designed to give a Minister the regulatory tools necessary to deal with a specific, identified threat in a very targeted way.
• Interim orders only allow Ministers to abbreviate processes that already exist under a Canadian law. They do not allow Ministers to do anything outside the scope of what Canadian law already allows.
• There is no reduction in Parliamentary oversight. On the contrary, unlike regulations, all interim orders must be tabled in Parliament within 15 sitting days.
• Interim orders are a common sense measure.

What is an interim order?

Interim orders are required to enable a Minister to act immediately to address a significant risk to health, safety or the environment.

Interim orders can only be made in relation to powers that can already be exercised under an Act of Parliament for which the Minister is responsible. Ministers must act under laws passed by Parliament.

Interim orders are simply intended to address circumstances in which there is no time to make a regulation as the law would normally require.

There is no reduction in Parliamentary oversight. On the contrary, unlike regulations, interim orders must be tabled in Parliament within 15 sitting days.

Why not use the Emergencies Act?

Interim orders and the Emergencies Act are two regimes designed to deal with different types of issues and different areas of jurisdiction.

The Emergencies Act is a tool of last resort and a wide-sweeping piece of legislation. It is intended to respond to an emergency at the national level and can only be invoked after it has been determined that a critical situation cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada and that the situation is either:

• of such proportions as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it; or
• seriously threatens the Government of Canada's ability to preserve sovereignty, security or territorial integrity.

The Emergencies Act contemplates four classes of emergency: public welfare, public order, international and war. In the first two cases, the Act envisages that the provinces would be responsible for taking action; in the last two, the federal government would exercise a planning function focussing on mobilizing national resources, with support from provincial and territorial governments and the private sector.

By contrast, interim orders are more modest measures designed to deal with matters solely within federal jurisdiction where accelerated regulatory-type change is needed.

To summarize:

When could an interim order be used?

An interim order is a targeted response to a situation of significant risk within a Minister's (federal) mandate that requires an urgent response that is regulatory in nature.

An interim order could:

• establish more stringent controls on the manufacture and importation of human pathogens like anthrax, for example;
• give quick approval to the military to build a bridge over or through navigable waters;
• allow for variation from food labelling requirements to facilitate importation of a food product during an emergency (such as importing U.S. milk during the ice storm);
• establish more stringent requirements for storage or distribution of pesticides that could be used to make chemical weapons;
• amend a list of prohibited or restricted substances (such as toxic gases) that could be used for terrorist purposes;
• require persons arriving in Canada to provide evidence of immunization in certain circumstances (such as where there is an epidemic in another country).

What measures are in place to ensure accountability and transparency?

• The Minister could only do by way of interim order that which could be done by way of regulation.
• An interim order must be tabled in each House of Parliament within 15 sitting days after it is made.
• Interim orders, like regulations, are subject to ongoing review by the Standing Joint Committee on the Scrutiny of Regulations.
• The order must be published in the Canada Gazette within 23 days.
• The Minister must obtain GiC approval within 45 days after the order is made.
• An interim order is subject to judicial review.

Why does GiC approval take 45 days?

• Let's remember that 45 days is the limit for seeking GiC approval and depending on the circumstances, the approval could be sought earlier.
• This 45-day period is necessary for two reasons. First of all, it ensures the Department can collect and prepare all the required documentation. More importantly, it ensures that all necessary departmental resources are focussed on responding to the emergency situation on a priority basis.
• This is a reasonable and logical balance that ensures appropriate Cabinet oversight, while making sure the emergency situation receives the necessary level of resources.