Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May says amendments to Bill C-15 passed today in committee are a direct result of public pressure, but that the Green Party will continue to push for the removal of the exemption power entirely.

The amendments, moved by Conservative MP Rachel Cobena (Newmarket-Aurora), introduce oversight measures and transparency requirements that mirror concerns May first raised in Parliament on December 9, 2025, when she was the only MP sounding the alarm about the provision.

“On December 9th, I was the first MP to raise this in Parliament. No one else had even mentioned it. Today, the committee has voted to add the oversight and transparency that were completely absent from the original bill,” said May. “These amendments exist because Canadians paid attention, civil society organizations spoke up, and parliamentarians did their jobs. That is how democracy is supposed to work.”

As originally drafted, Division 5 of C-15 would have allowed any cabinet minister, at their sole discretion, to exempt any entity from virtually any federal law, with the only exception being the Criminal Code. Public notification would have been required only “as soon as feasible,” with no defined timeline. There was no requirement for public consultation, no parliamentary reporting, and no definition of the “public interest” test that would guide the minister’s decision.

May raised these concerns repeatedly in the House of Commons and in committee, calling the provision “an extraordinary power grab by individual ministers” and urging the government to amend the bill. In the weeks that followed, a broad coalition including Ecojustice, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Nature Canada, and more than a hundred legal experts and civil society organizations joined the call for reform.

The five amendments passed today respond to several of the concerns that May and civil society organizations identified, though they fall short of the Green Party’s call to remove the exemption power entirely.

Expanded list of protected laws. The original bill exempted only the Criminal Code from ministerial override. The amendments create an “excluded Act” list of 14 federal statutes that cannot be subject to exemption, including the Access to Information Act, the Auditor General Act, the Canada Elections Act, the Privacy Act, the Lobbying Act, and the Financial Administration Act.

Mandatory public consultation. Ministers must now conduct a minimum 30-day public consultation with stakeholders, including experts and sector participants, before granting any exemption.

Treasury Board approval required. Exemptions can no longer be granted by a single minister acting alone. The President of the Treasury Board must approve each exemption.

Hard transparency deadlines. The vague “as soon as feasible” disclosure language is replaced with a 30-day deadline for publishing the order in the Canada Gazette, and a 90-day deadline for tabling a report in Parliament. Ministers must also appear before committee on request to explain their decision.

Narrowed scope. The exemption power is now limited to enabling innovation in the clean technology and financial technology sectors, rather than the open-ended “public interest” standard in the original bill. Benefits must demonstrably outweigh risks, and a feasible implementation plan must be developed.

Equal treatment across sectors. If one business receives an exemption, other businesses operating in the same sector must be offered the same exemption on the same terms, preventing ministers from picking corporate winners.

May noted that while the amendments represent meaningful progress, the Green Party maintains that the exemption power itself remains fundamentally flawed and should be removed from the bill.

“These are real improvements, and they happened because Canadians pushed for them. But the Green Party’s position has not changed. The very notion of exempting individuals and corporations from the application of Canadian law is offensive and should be deleted from this bill entirely,” said May. “Red Tape Reduction should never allow reductions in the protection of health and the environment.”

The Green Party will continue to fight for changes to Bill C-15 as it moves through the remaining stages of the legislative process.

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