Tobacco local board can now distribute court-settlement funds to eligible tobacco producers without spending-cap limits

Two provisions that capped the local board's spending at $25,000 per transaction (without Commission approval) have been removed. In their place, a new rule explicitly permits the local board to use and distribute mon…

Municipalities barred from charging storm-water fees on farm and managed-forest properties

A new restriction has been added preventing municipalities and local boards from imposing storm-water management fees or charges on portions of a property classified as farmland or managed forest under the Assessment…

Sections 26.1 to 28 of the Crown Forests regulation (approved manuals) are now formally revoked

Sections 26.1 through 28 of Ontario's general Crown forest regulation, which previously set out the approved Forest Management Planning Manual, Forest Information Manual, Forest Operations and Silviculture Manual, and…

Ministerial approval requirement for annual timber harvesting removed from Crown forest licences

The requirement that forest resource licence holders obtain written ministerial approval before beginning harvesting each year has been repealed. Previously, licence holders also risked having that approval withheld i…

Ontario formally approves four forestry manuals governing how Crown forest management plans must be prepared and operated

A new regulation approves four Ministry-prepared manuals that set the rules for Crown forest management in Ontario: the Forest Management Planning Manual (March 2024, with a June 2026 Addendum), the Forest Information…

Four key forestry manuals will be revoked from the regulation in mid-2026

The regulation currently approves four Ministry-prepared manuals — the Forest Management Planning Manual, the Forest Information Manual, the Forest Operations and Silviculture Manual, and the Scaling Manual — as the b…

Two grape variety updates to Ontario's VQA wine labelling rules: Albarino added, Pinot Gris gets a new synonym

Ontario's VQA wine rules have been updated to add Albarino (also accepted as Albarina, Alvarinho, or Alvarinha) as a recognized grape variety that can appear on wine labels. Separately, Pinot Beurot has been added as…

Niagara Escarpment development permit exemptions comprehensively rewritten with new definitions and expanded permitted activities

The list of development activities that do not require a development permit in the Niagara Escarpment Development Control Area has been substantially restructured and expanded from roughly 41 items to 67. New defined…

Ontario liquor licensing rules updated: grocery/convenience store transfers, delivery licence classes, and drafting notes removed

Several previously announced changes have now been formally incorporated into the consolidated regulation text, removing the transitional "future amendment" notes that were pointing to July 1, 2026 changes. Grocery st…

Ontario trapping regulation updated with gender-neutral language and minor firearm rule clarifications

This amendment replaces gendered pronouns ('he or she', 'his or her') with gender-neutral equivalents ('they', 'their', 'them') throughout the trapping regulation. A transitional provision that allowed pre-2019 class…

Ontario wildlife possession and fur-trade rules updated: online Registry replaced, record-keeping extended, and beaver castoreum trade added

The Ministry of Natural Resources has replaced the requirement to use its online Registry when reporting possession of wildlife carcasses and pelts. People who acquire a bear, deer, elk, moose, raptor or furbearing ma…

Ontario hunting regulation updated: expanded family definitions, outdoors card rules, guide requirements, and language modernization

Ontario's hunting regulation has been amended in a wide-ranging update. The definition of 'immediate family member' now includes step-grandparents, step-parents, step-children, step-siblings, and step-grandchildren. T…

Small beer manufacturers' tax credit rates updated and new transition-year formula added

The regulation has been updated in two main ways. First, the per-litre credit rate for non-draft beer in certain periods has been adjusted by a fraction of a cent (from $0.6987 to $0.6986 for sales up to March 1, 2026…

Grocery and convenience store liquor licences: tighter rules on private-label products and exclusive manufacturer arrangements

Grocery and convenience store licensees are now explicitly prohibited from selling any liquor that qualifies as "private label" — meaning any brand in which they or an affiliate hold a direct or indirect financial int…

Environmental tax container-tracking removed from liquor tax reporting and record-keeping rules

The amendment strips out all requirements related to tracking non-refillable containers and the environmental tax on wine, wine coolers, spirits, and spirits coolers from both monthly return filings and record-keeping…

Ontario trapping rules updated: new beaver damage authorization, gender-neutral language, and firearm clarifications

Several changes are being made to Ontario's trapping regulation in two stages. First, the Minister will gain authority to issue special authorizations allowing licensed trappers to harass, capture, or kill beaver outs…

Wildlife possession and fur-trade rules updated: Registry replaced, records expanded, and beaver castoreum trade permitted

A set of staged amendments updates Ontario's rules on possessing, buying and selling wildlife carcasses, pelts, hides, and cast antlers. The online Ministry Registry system for submitting notices of possession will be…

Effective date for two hunting tag rule changes pushed back to January 1, 2027

Two upcoming changes to how hunters must handle invalidated tags — covering possession of untagged animals and the rules for keeping a tag on a carcass until processing — have had their effective dates shifted from Ju…

Ontario bans cat declawing, dog devocalization, and ear cropping except for medical necessity

A new regulation under Ontario's Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act formally prohibits three surgical procedures on companion animals: declawing (onychectomy) on cats, devocalization on dogs, and ear cropping on d…

New federal rules let Ontario municipalities maintain municipal drains without separate Fisheries Act approvals — if strict conditions are met

A new federal regulation creates a self-authorizing pathway for Ontario municipalities to carry out routine maintenance and repair work on designated municipal drains without needing individual project authorizations…

Canada enacts free trade agreement with Indonesia, reducing tariffs across hundreds of product categories

Canada has passed legislation implementing a new Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Indonesia. The Act approves the agreement, gives it legal force in Canada, and establishes the governance machinery—in…

B.C. hunting rules updated to align with new Firearm Violence Prevention Act and clarify boat-hunting restrictions

Several hunting and wildlife regulations have been updated to integrate the new Firearm Violence Prevention Act into B.C.'s existing wildlife enforcement framework. Hunters using motorized boats are still prohibited f…

New chicken production quotas set for the next marketing period across all provinces

Chicken Farmers of Canada has updated the schedule of maximum chicken production allowed under federal and provincial quotas for the new eight-week marketing period. The total national production limit under standard…

Manitoba chicken marketing levy raised and levy schedule extended one year

Two changes have been made to the levies that chicken producers pay to Chicken Farmers of Canada on interprovincial and export trade. First, the per-kilogram levy rate for Manitoba producers has increased from 2.46 ce…

Ontario fish licensing rules updated: outdoors cards, cross-border fishing rights, and language modernized

A package of amendments to Ontario's fish licensing regulation makes several practical changes taking effect in mid-2026. The definition of 'outdoors card' is broadened so that a card identified on a licence summary c…

Ontario Taxation Act updated: dividend tax rates, small business rate, beer credit, Trillium Benefit thresholds, and procedural rules all revised

Ontario's Taxation Act has been amended in several areas. The provincial gross-up rate applied to eligible dividends received by individuals is being reduced for tax years after 2026 (from 22.895% to 15.2283%), and th…

Ontario eliminates volume and environmental taxes on beer, wine and spirits; raises basic beer tax rates and restructures spirits tax by alcohol content

Ontario's Liquor Tax Act has been restructured to remove the separate volume tax and environmental tax that applied to beer, wine, wine cooler, and spirits purchased from licensed retail stores — those charges no long…

Plant Breeders' Rights Regulations updated: longer compliance windows, new farmers' privilege exclusions, and revised application rules

Several practical changes have been made to Canada's Plant Breeders' Rights Regulations. Assignees of plant breeders' rights now have one year (up from 30 days) to register an assignment with the Commissioner, and wit…

Line Fences Act forms now listed under Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness on Ontario's forms website

The official forms used in line fence disputes — including fence-viewer awards, notices, and owner agreements — are now listed on the Ontario Central Forms Repository under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribu…

Municipalities barred from charging storm water fees to farm and managed forest properties — with refund obligation

A new rule blocks municipalities and local boards from imposing storm water management fees or charges on land classified as farm property or managed forests under the Assessment Act. The ban has a narrow exception: i…

Food Safety regulation updated with a formal table of contents listing all sections and parts

The regulation has been amended to add a table of contents at the beginning of the document. The table of contents lists both major parts of the regulation: Part I covering seizure and detention of things under the Fo…

Conditions for Exempted Persons Regulations repealed in full

The Conditions for Exempted Persons Regulations, which governed export limits and exemption conditions for named softwood lumber producers under the Softwood Lumber Products Export Charge Act, 2006, have been repealed…

Payments to the Provinces Regulations under the Softwood Lumber Products Export Charge Act have been repealed

The Payments to the Provinces Regulations, which governed how export-charge revenues were calculated and distributed to Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, have been fully repealed.…

American Consumption of Softwood Lumber Products Regulations repealed in full

The American Consumption of Softwood Lumber Products Regulations have been repealed entirely. All provisions—including definitions, data-source rules, formulas for calculating American softwood lumber consumption, mar…

Liquor licence renewal fees raised and training program fees updated across B.C.

Licence renewal fees for most B.C. liquor licence types — including liquor primary, food primary, catering, retail stores, distilleries, breweries, wineries, and agents — have been revised upward under a new fee sched…

B.C. expands greenhouse gas new-entrant rules to cover parts of industrial operations and proposed operations

Two B.C. greenhouse gas regulations have been updated to allow parts of an industrial operation—not just whole operations—to qualify as "new entrants" with reduced compliance obligations, provided the operation has in…

Excise duty rate tiers for small Canadian brewers restructured: first 2,000 hL tier rises from 5% to 10%, next 10,000 hL tier rises from 20% to 40%

The reduced excise duty rates that apply to beer and malt liquor brewed in Canada by smaller producers have been restructured across the volume tiers in Schedule II.1. The first 2,000 hectolitre tier, which previously…

Turkey production quotas increased for all provinces in the next annual control period

The national schedule of turkey production quotas has been updated for the new annual control period. Every province's allocation has been raised, pushing the national total from roughly 372 million pounds to approxim…

Advance payment loan limits extended to program year 2026, with higher cap maintained for canola producers

The regulations have been updated to set the maximum advance payment amount for program year 2026 at $250,000 for most agricultural producers. Canola producers continue to benefit from a higher cap of $500,000 for bot…

Canada Transportation Act gains ministerial interim-order power; Prairie extended interswitching rules removed

Two significant changes appear in the consolidated text. First, a new provision (s. 49.1) gives the federal Minister responsible for transportation the ability to issue interim orders that replicate, vary, or suspend…

First Nations tax law gains a new Part 3 letting eligible First Nations impose tax on alcohol, fuel, cannabis, vaping and tobacco products

A new Part 3 has been added to the federal First Nations Goods and Services Tax Act, creating a framework that lets qualifying First Nations governing bodies (bands or bodies with equivalent legislative power) enact t…

Federal financial administration rules updated: Digital Services Tax removed from set-off exemption, new trade deals added, Crown corporation deleted

Several targeted changes have been made to Canada's core financial administration legislation. The Digital Services Tax Act has been removed from the list of tax statutes whose amounts are exempt from the government's…

Farm Credit Canada Act now requires periodic parliamentary review of the agency's operations

A new section has been added to the Farm Credit Canada Act requiring the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, in consultation with the Minister of Finance, to review the Act and Farm Credit Canada's operations on a…

Canada's National School Food Program gets its own stand-alone law, locking in federal funding and reporting duties

A new federal Act formally establishes the National School Food Program in statute, setting out the government's long-term vision that all children and youth in Canada have access to nutritious food at school. The law…

New Qikiqtait Marine Protected Area designated in Hudson Bay, Arctic Ocean

A new Marine Protected Area (MPA) has been formally established in a portion of Hudson Bay in the Arctic Ocean, covering the seabed, subsoil to five metres depth, the water column above, and sea ice. Most activities a…

New Sarvarjuaq Marine Protected Area designated in Baffin Bay and Nares Strait

A new Marine Protected Area (MPA) has been formally established in the Arctic Ocean, covering parts of Baffin Bay and Nares Strait, including the seabed, subsoil to five metres depth, the water column, and sea ice. Mo…

BC's Spongy Moth Eradication Regulation gets an updated Schedule of regulated areas

The Schedule attached to the Spongy Moth Eradication Regulation has been repealed and replaced with a new version. The Schedule typically defines the geographic areas subject to spongy moth eradication controls — such…

Federal protection now applies to Plains Minnow critical habitat in Canada

A new federal order formally activates the Species at Risk Act's prohibition on destroying critical habitat for the Plains Minnow, a threatened freshwater fish. The critical habitat is defined in the species' recovery…

Designated accommodation tax rate rises to 3% and both expiry dates extended to 2031

Two changes have been made to the Designated Accommodation Area Tax Regulation. First, the accommodation tax rate for the area covered by Schedule 2.1 item 1 is increasing from 2% to 3%. Second, two expiry dates that…

Canada's CPTPP Act updated to accommodate UK accession and future treaty expansions

Amendments not yet in force have been appended to the consolidated text of the CPTPP Implementation Act. These pending changes redefine "Agreement" to include any future accession protocols listed in a new schedule, e…

Rail grain shipping order repealed by operation of law — substantive text removed

The full text of this order, which had established the resolution to postpone certain Fair Rail for Grain Farmers Act provisions, has been removed from the consolidated record because it was repealed by operation of l…

Grain movement order repealed by operation of law — minimum weekly tonnage requirements no longer in effect

This order, which had required Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway to each move specified minimum weekly tonnages of grain across several defined periods, has been repealed by operation of law. All…

Grain movement minimum-tonnage order repealed by operation of law

The order that required CN Rail and CP Rail each to move a minimum of 536,250 tonnes of grain per week has been repealed by operation of law. The substantive provisions—including the weekly tonnage requirement and the…

Federal law now authorizes the winding-down and dissolution of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation

New provisions added to the Freshwater Fish Marketing Act give the federal Minister broad authority — with Governor in Council approval — to sell or dispose of the Corporation's assets, amalgamate or dissolve it, appo…