Regulations Amending the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations (Formatting Changes): SOR/2020-23

Canada Gazette, Part II, Volume 154, Number 4

Registration

SOR/2020-23 February 4, 2020

TRANSPORTATION OF DANGEROUS GOODS ACT, 1992

P.C. 2020-27 February 3, 2020

Her Excellency the Governor General in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister of Transport, pursuant to section 27 footnote a of the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act, 1992 footnote b, makes the annexed Regulations Amending the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations (Formatting Changes).

Regulations Amending the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations (Formatting Changes)

Amendments

Italicized Text

1 Subsection 1.3(1) of the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations footnote 1 is repealed.

2 Section 1.5.1 of the Regulations is amended by adding the following after subsection (2):

(3) The UN numbers set out in italics after a special provision of Schedule 2 indicate the dangerous goods in respect of which the special provision applies. They are for information only and are not part of the Regulations.

3 Parts 1 to 16 of the Regulations are amended by striking out all of the italicized annotations.

4 Appendix 3 to Part 2 of the Regulations is amended by adding the following after the heading “GUIDE TO CATEGORY A AND CATEGORY B ASSIGNMENT”:

For the “Category A” tables: * = requires an ERAP. For the “Category B” tables: @ = infectious substance that affects animals only.

5 (1) The legend of Schedule 1 to the Regulations is amended by striking out all of the italicized annotations.

(2) The portion in italics of UN numbers UN0282 and UN2660 of Schedule 1 to the French version of the Regulations in column 2 is struck out.

6 Schedule 2 to the Regulations is amended by striking out all of the italicized annotations with the exception of any UN numbers that are listed after a special provision.

7 The legend of Schedule 3 to the Regulations is amended by striking out all of the italicized annotations.

8 If any provision of Parts 1 to 16 of the Regulations or any provision of Schedule 2 to the Regulations refers to an Act, Regulation, Standard or other document, the provision is amended by rendering the title of the act, regulation, standard or other document in italics instead of placing the title within quotation marks.

Section Numbers and Titles

9 Parts 1 to 16 of the Regulations are amended, as applicable, by moving the section number of each section from the title of the section to the first line of the section or the first line of the first subsection of the section.

10 Parts 1 to 16 of the Regulations are amended by converting the title of each section into a heading.

11 Schedule 2 to the Regulations is amended, as applicable, by moving the number of each special provision from the line above the special provision to the first line of the first subsection of the special provision.

Tables of Contents

12 The Table of Contents of the Regulations is struck out.

13 Parts 1 to 16 of the Regulations are amended by striking out the Table of Contents of each Part.

Definitions and Interpretation

14 Section 1.3.1 of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Definitions — safety standards and safety requirement documents

1.3.1 The following definitions apply in these Regulations.

15 Section 1.4 of the Regulations is replaced by the following:

Definitions

1.4 The following definitions apply in these Regulations.

Coming into Force

16 These Regulations come into force on the day on which they are published in the Canada Gazette, Part II.

REGULATORY IMPACT ANALYSIS STATEMENT

(This statement is not part of the Regulations.)

Issues

The current format of the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations (TDGR) text was developed using “clear language.” The original purpose of the clear language initiative was to reduce the complexity of the legal language and simplify the structure of the regulatory text, primarily to facilitate compliance with the TDGR. As such, since 2002, the TDGR have been accompanied by certain clear language features such as tables of content and italicized explanatory text, which do not form a legal part of the Regulations.

This format, however, is inconsistent with the established Department of Justice (JUS) drafting standards for federal legislation and, as a result, the TDGR cannot be included on the Justice Laws Website of the Department of Justice which provides public access to the law. This situation is uncommon among federal acts and regulations and creates confusion among stakeholders when the TDGR are not located alongside other Government of Canada’s regulations. The TDGR are the only regulations from the Transport Canada (TC) that are not found on the Justice Laws Website.

An unofficial consolidated version of the TDGR is available on TC’s website. However, it cannot be used for evidentiary purposes, as it is not included in the consolidated regulations published by the Minister of Justice. In addition, because the TDGR are not updated and consolidated by JUS, the unofficial version on TC’s website must be kept up to date by TC staff each time a new amendment is published, which poses the risk of introducing errors into text that is referenced by stakeholders.

A regulatory amendment is therefore necessary to modify the TDGR format to meet JUS formatting standards. This will allow an official consolidated version of the TDGR to be published on the Justice Laws Website.

Objective

The objective of the Regulations Amending the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Regulations (Formatting Changes) is to revise the TDGR format to be consistent with JUS formatting standards and ensure that an official consolidated version of the TDGR is easily accessible to all Canadians on the Justice Laws Website.

Description and rationale

The amendments make housekeeping changes to the legal text of the TDGR that will allow them to be posted alongside other Canadian federal acts and regulations on the Justice Laws Website. The following is a list of clear language features that have been modified:

The amendments will align the TDGR format with that of other Canadian federal acts and regulations. Doing so will allow for an official consolidated version of the TDGR to be posted on the Justice Laws Website alongside all other official federal acts and regulations. There, it will be easily accessible to stakeholders, other government departments and the Canadian public.

JUS will now be responsible for consolidating and posting regulatory amendments on their website. JUS already has the tools and capacity to undertake this, which will remove the burden from TC who does not have such a capacity. This will reduce the likelihood of introducing errors when publishing amendments to the Regulations and allow the government to save time and costs.

Consultation

TC informed industry stakeholders of this initiative at the Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG) General Policy Advisory Council footnote 2 meeting in spring 2016. Federal, provincial, and territorial stakeholders were informed during a Federal-Provincial-Territorial Task Force footnote 3 meeting in fall 2017. Updates were subsequently provided to both groups of stakeholders twice a year at following meetings.

Some stakeholders expressed concern regarding the removal of the italicized text from the TDGR, as they have come to rely on it for further explanation of the regulatory text. However, guidance materials with information mirroring the italic text currently found in the TDGR will continue to be available on TC’s website.

Some stakeholders also indicated their support for revising the TDGR format, allowing it to be available on the Justice Laws Website.

Implementation, compliance and enforcement, and service standards

Given that the amendments primarily affect the format of the TDGR, it is not anticipated that compliance promotion and enforcement activities will be necessary. To ease the transition, a copy of the current “clear language” version, as it is immediately prior to this amendment coming into force, will be kept on Transport Canada’s website. This version will have no legal standing and will be available for reference only. A notice will also be posted alongside the “clear language” version that will advise that it is not up to date and that will refer users to the Justice Laws Website for access to the current TDGR.

Regulatees will be notified of the changes using a communication network that is already well established. This will include posting notices and other guidance material to relevant pages on TC’s website, providing an update in the TDG Newsletter, footnote 4 and notifying the TDG General Advisory Council and the Multi-Association Committee on TDG. footnote 5

One-for-one rule and small business lens

The amendments will not result in any incremental administrative burden costs for businesses. Therefore, the one-for-one rule does not apply.

The amendments will not result in any incremental costs for small businesses. Therefore, the small business lens does not apply.

Contact

Transportation of Dangerous Goods Directorate
Department of Transport
330 Sparks Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0N5
Telephone: 613‑993‑8685
Email: TC.TDGRegulatoryProposal-TMDPropositionReglementaire.TC@tc.gc.ca