Regulations Amending the Crown Liability and Proceedings (Provincial Court) Regulations (Miscellaneous Program): SOR/2018-255

Canada Gazette, Part II, Volume 152, Number 25

Registration

SOR/2018-255 November 23, 2018

CROWN LIABILITY AND PROCEEDINGS ACT

P.C. 2018-1437 November 22, 2018

Her Excellency the Governor General in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of Justice, pursuant to section 34 footnote a of the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act footnote b, makes the annexed Regulations Amending the Crown Liability and Proceedings (Provincial Court) Regulations (Miscellaneous Program).

Regulations Amending the Crown Liability and Proceedings (Provincial Court) Regulations (Miscellaneous Program)

Amendments

1 The Crown Liability and Proceedings (Provincial Court) Regulations footnote 1 are amended by adding the following after section 2:

2.1 For the purposes of sections 8 and 10, person means a natural person of full age and capacity other than Her Majesty in right of Canada or a province.

2 Paragraph 4(2)(c) of the English version of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

3 Section 8 of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

8 (1) Subject to sections 37 to 39 of the Canada Evidence Act, where the Attorney General or an agency of the Crown would, if the Crown were a person, be required under the provincial rules to file or serve a list or an affidavit of documents, the Deputy Attorney General must, subject to the same conditions as apply between subject and subject, file or serve a list of the documents relating to the matter of which the Crown has knowledge within 60 days after the event that under the provincial rules gives rise to the obligation to file or serve the list or affidavit, or within any additional time that may be allowed by the court.

(2) Where, under provincial rules, a party would be entitled to obtain production for inspection of any document or a copy of any document as against or from the Crown, if the Crown were a person, the production for inspection or copy may be had, subject to sections 37 to 39 of the Canada Evidence Act, under order of the court after consideration has been given to any objection that would be available to the Crown if the Crown were a person.

4 Section 10 of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

10 Where, by or under the provincial rules, the Attorney General or an agency of the Crown would, if the Crown were a person, be required or permitted to do anything in relation to any matter not expressly dealt with in these Regulations, within a certain period of time, a period of 14 days is to be added to the time otherwise allowed for doing that thing.

5 Section 12 of the English version of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

12 Rules of the court relating to taxation of costs between solicitor and client have no application as between the Attorney General and the agents or mandataries of the Attorney General.

Coming into Force

6 These Regulations come into force on the day on which they are registered.

REGULATORY IMPACT ANALYSIS STATEMENT

(This statement is not part of the Regulations.)

Issues

The Department of Justice’s initiative to harmonize federal law with the civil law of Quebec, which is based on the Policy on Legislative Bijuralism of 1995, aims to revise federal statutes and regulations, when they refer to the private law of the provinces and territories, so that each linguistic version be compatible with the concepts and terminology of civil law and common law. The current amendments to the Crown Liability and Proceedings (Provincial Court) Regulations (SOR/91-604) are made within the framework of this initiative. The Crown Liability and Proceedings Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-50, was previously amended for harmonization purposes as part of Federal Law — Civil Law Harmonization Act, No. 1, S.C. 2001, c. 4.

Certain terms of the English version of the Regulations (“agent” and “private person”) refer only to common law terminology, and this results in a harmonization problem with the civil law of Quebec. In order to render the Regulations accessible and understandable, the wording of the Regulations must be amended to include terminology that is consistent with civil law. The amendments made to the Regulations are terminological, technical in nature, non-controversial and are not intended to alter the legislative policy of the Regulations. Rather, they ensure that the policy underlying the provisions in question is implemented in light of both the common law and the civil law, and in both official languages.

Objectives

The amendments are intended to harmonize the Regulations with the provincial and territorial private law by the use of a terminology that is consistent with the civil law and common law traditions, in each of the two official languages. Thus, this harmonization is intended to facilitate access to justice by making this regulation easier to understand for Canadians, be they Anglophones or Francophones, and whether they are governed by the civil law or the common law tradition. The amendments also aim to ensure that the wording and terms used in the Regulations are in keeping with those used in the already harmonized enabling statute.

Description

The English version of paragraph 4(2)c) and of section 12 of the Crown Liability and Proceedings (Provincial Court) Regulations is modified by the addition of the civil law term “mandatary(ies)” after that of “agent(s).”

As well, the expressions “personne physique” and “private persons” at sections 8 and 10 of the same Regulations are, respectively, replaced by “personne” and “person,” which are consistent with both the civil law and the common law. Furthermore, a definition of these terms is added to the Regulations at section 2. This definition, which applies only to section 8 and 10, specifies that “person” means a natural person of full age and capable other than Her Majesty in right of Canada or of a province. These modifications replicate the amendments made in 2001 to sections 2.1, 3 and 4 of the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act within the framework of the harmonization initiative.

“One-for-One” Rule

The “One-for-One” Rule does not apply to these amendments, as there is no change in administrative costs or burden to business.

Small business lens

The small business lens does not apply to these amendments, as there are no costs to small business.

Rationale

The amendments to the Regulations are intended to ensure that the two linguistic versions use a terminology that is consistent with the concepts and notions of both the civil law and the common law, so as to provide better access to federal legislation and to justice. These amendments also ensure that the wording used in the Regulations is consistent with the wording used in its already harmonized enabling statute. These amendments do not impose any costs on the government or stakeholders.

Contact

Luc Gagné
Director and General Counsel
Bijuralism Group and Advisory Services and Legislative Revision Group
Legislative Services Branch
Public Law and Legislative Services Sector
Department of Justice Canada
275 Sparks Street (SAT 5014)
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0H8
Telephone: 613-952-1119
Email: lgagne@justice.gc.ca