“Hidden in the federal government’s 634-page omnibus bill C-15, the Budget Implementation Act, is a measure that has so far escaped scrutiny. Under the pretext of regulatory efficiency, Prime Minister Mark Carney plans to grant cabinet ministers the power to exempt any individual or company from any federal law on the books — except for the Criminal Code — for up to six years.”



Here’s the relevant part of the bill copied below, and the link to the bill on parl.ca. Scroll down a little bit to section 208. There are some things I trimmed out for brevity. This is not the whole thing, just the parts I considered most relevant.
208 Section 11 of the Act and the heading before it are replaced by the following:
#Exemptions to Encourage Innovation, Competitiveness or Economic Growth
Order
12 (1) Subject to subsections (3) and (7), a minister may, by order, for a specified validity period of not more than three years and on any terms that the minister considers appropriate, exempt an entity from the application of
Conditions
(3) A minister may make an order under subsection (1) only if the minister is of the opinion that
#Transparency and Parliamentary Oversight
Accessibility
14 (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), a minister must, as soon as feasible after making an order under section 12, make the order and the following information publicly accessible:
Exception
The section on oversight is also critical. It basically gives the Minister the power to decide for themselves what information should not be made public as part of oversight, which is as good as saying there is no real oversight authority.
Good point. Added.
The AI industry in Canada has been pushing to essentially ‘self-regulate’, and (at least in this layperson’s opinion) seems like the legislative method for giving them what they want.