Order Fixing April 1, 2022 as the Day on Which Sections 656 and 657 of that Act Come into Force: SI/2021-29

Canada Gazette, Part II, Volume 155, Number 13

Registration
SI/2021-29 June 23, 2021

BUDGET IMPLEMENTATION ACT, 2018, NO. 2

Order Fixing April 1, 2022 as the Day on Which Sections 656 and 657 of that Act Come into Force

P.C. 2021-523 June 10, 2021

His Excellency the Administrator of the Government of Canada in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister for International Development, pursuant to section 660 of the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2, chapter 27 of the Statutes of Canada, 2018, fixes April 1, 2022 as the day on which sections 656 and 657 of that Act come into force.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order.)

Proposal

To fix April 1, 2022, as the day on which sections 656 and 657 of the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2 come into force.

Objectives

Background

The Act came into force in 2008 and outlines key principles and requirements for Canada's official development assistance to be reported to Parliament. Specifically, the Act requires a summary report of all official development assistance activities and expenditures made by the Government of Canada to be tabled in Parliament and that an annual statistical report on the disbursement of official development assistance be published by the Government of Canada. The Act also included a definition of official development assistance based on the then-current definition established by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD-DAC).

However, the OECD-DAC definition of official development assistance (ODA) has evolved in recent years and Canada's definition of official development assistance contained in the Act is no longer aligned with the latest international definition. The main difference is that the OECD-DAC has changed how official development assistance is counted for concessional loans. This could lead to a growing discrepancy between Canada's reporting of official development assistance to Parliament under the Act and its international reporting to the OECD-DAC.

In Budget 2018, the Government of Canada made commitments to “explore further enhancing its international assistance reporting, including consideration of legislative updates as appropriate.” The Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2, which received royal assent on December 13, 2018, repealed the definition of official development assistance in the Act and allows the definition to be made in regulations, and for both to be brought into force on a day fixed by order of the Governor in Council. This approach ensures that provisions related to the repeal of the definition of official development assistance and the creation of a new regulation to define official development assistance for the purposes of the Act could be appropriately sequenced and brought into force at the same time.

Implications

Bringing into force sections 656 and 657 of the Act repeals the definition the official development assistance definition in the Act and allow a revised definition to be established in regulation. The Regulations Defining “official development assistance” has been made concurrently with this Order and is explained in its related Regulatory Impact and Analysis Statement. Costs associated with entry into force of provisions specified in this order are administrative in nature only and will be managed within existing departmental and agency budgets.

Consultation

Several stakeholders provided input in the context of the legislative amendment process for the Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2. Representatives of civil society testified at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, and Government of Canada officials also engaged informally with individual stakeholders to exchange views on the proposed amendments.

Parliamentarians engaged with officials from Global Affairs Canada and the Department of Finance in the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance, as did Senators in the Senate Standing Committee on National Finance.

Global Affairs Canada organized consultations with stakeholders during the process to create the regulation to define the expression “official development assistance” for the purposes of the Act. Such consultations were held in April 2019 and information was provided to participants regarding the importance of aligning Canada's official development assistance definition with internationally agreed definition by the OECD-DAC and on the fact that the creation of a regulation would facilitate future updates.

Contact

Carol Mundle
Director
International Assistance Envelope Management
Global Affairs Canada
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0G2
Telephone: 343‑203‑4747
Email: carol.mundle@international.gc.ca