More Than 100 Experts Warn Bill C-15 Threatens Canada’s Democratic Foundations

Press Release

February 23, 2026

OTTAWA/TRADITIONAL, UNCEDED TERRITORY OF THE ALGONQUIN ANISHNAABEG PEOPLE — More than 100 leading legal scholars, human rights experts, leaders from Indigenous communities, labour, health, and civil society organizations just released an open letter urging parliamentarians to remove sweeping new exemption powers from Bill C-15, a budget implementation bill.

The proposed amendments to the Red Tape Reduction Act would allow federal ministers to exempt individuals, corporations, and even government departments from complying with nearly any federal law. With the sole exception of the Criminal Code, no legislation would be off limits — including laws protecting labour standards, Indigenous rights, environmental safeguards, public health, privacy, and national security.

“These ‘Henry VIII’ style power grabs don’t just sidestep Parliament — they risk hollowing out the very laws that protect our air, water, and communities,” said Muhannad Malas, Director of Law Reform at Ecojustice. “Laws are only as strong as the democratic safeguards that uphold them. If our government can provide backdoor exemptions whenever compliance is inconvenient, our environmental and health laws become riddled with loopholes and lose their ability to do the very things that Parliament enacted them to do.”

“Contrary to the federal government’s stance, these changes do not amount to routine ‘regulatory sandboxing,’” said Geneviève Paul, Executive Director at the Quebec Environmental Law Centre (CQDE). “While traditional sandboxes are narrow and transparent, the proposed amendments rely on vague notions like ‘competitiveness and ‘economic growth and grant ministers broad discretion with very minimal oversight.”

“Long ago, the people of Canada decided that a small group of people in a position of power should not make decisions behind closed doors that benefit the select few who have their ear,” said Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, director of Fundamental Freedoms at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. “The new exemption powers contemplated under Bill C-15 directly threaten this fundamental principle.”

“We are calling on Members of Parliament to remove Part 5, Division 5 from Bill C-15 before passage,” Bussières McNicoll added.

OTTAWA/TRADITIONAL, UNCEDED TERRITORY OF THE ALGONQUIN ANISHNAABEG PEOPLE — More than 100 leading legal scholars, human rights experts, leaders from Indigenous communities, labour, health, and civil society organizations just released an open letter urging parliamentarians to remove sweeping new exemption powers from Bill C-15, a budget implementation bill.

The proposed amendments to the Red Tape Reduction Act would allow federal ministers to exempt individuals, corporations, and even government departments from complying with nearly any federal law. With the sole exception of the Criminal Code, no legislation would be off limits — including laws protecting labour standards, Indigenous rights, environmental safeguards, public health, privacy, and national security.

“These ‘Henry VIII’ style power grabs don’t just sidestep Parliament — they risk hollowing out the very laws that protect our air, water, and communities,” said Muhannad Malas, Director of Law Reform at Ecojustice. “Laws are only as strong as the democratic safeguards that uphold them. If our government can provide backdoor exemptions whenever compliance is inconvenient, our environmental and health laws become riddled with loopholes and lose their ability to do the very things that Parliament enacted them to do.”

“Contrary to the federal government’s stance, these changes do not amount to routine ‘regulatory sandboxing,’” said Geneviève Paul, Executive Director at the Quebec Environmental Law Centre (CQDE). “While traditional sandboxes are narrow and transparent, the proposed amendments rely on vague notions like ‘competitiveness and ‘economic growth and grant ministers broad discretion with very minimal oversight.”

“Long ago, the people of Canada decided that a small group of people in a position of power should not make decisions behind closed doors that benefit the select few who have their ear,” said Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, director of Fundamental Freedoms at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. “The new exemption powers contemplated under Bill C-15 directly threaten this fundamental principle.”

“We are calling on Members of Parliament to remove Part 5, Division 5 from Bill C-15 before passage,” Bussières McNicoll added.

Media Contacts

Alex Nanoff, Canadian Civil Liberties Association, media@ccla.org

Kristy Hayter, Director of Strategic Communications, khayter@ecojustice.ca

Sophie Turri, Quebec Environmental Law Centre, sophie.turri@cqde.org

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