Bill C-4
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EXPLANATORY NOTE |
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The North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and
the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation each establish a
mechanism for the resolution of disputes between Parties to the
Agreement with respect to whether there has been a persistent pattern
of failure by a Party to effectively enforce its environmental law or to
effectively enforce its occupational safety and health, child labour or
minimum wage technical labour standards.
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Each Agreement provides for the establishment of panels to make
findings of fact and determinations with respect to the matter in dispute.
A panel may, in its determination, require a Party to adopt an action plan
and, in certain cases, to pay a monetary enforcement assessment.
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This enactment amends the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act so
as to permit domestic enforcement by the Federal Court of Canada of
any panel determination that is addressed to the Crown in right of
Canada.
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The major elements of the enactment are as follows:
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1. The enactment sets out a procedure by which a panel determina
tion may be filed in the Federal Court. On filing, the panel determination
would become an order of the Federal Court.
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2. A panel determination that is made an order of the Federal Court
would be enforceable in the same manner as any other order of that
Court, subject to certain limitations.
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3. There would be no right of appeal against a panel determination
or an order or decision made by the Federal Court in any enforcement
proceedings. The enactment also contains a privative clause to exclude
domestic judicial review of panel proceedings, panel determinations,
enforcement proceedings taken in the Federal Court and orders and
decisions made by the Federal Court in any enforcement proceedings.
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