An Act to amend the Export and Import Permits Act

This bill, C-233, would change how Canada controls the export and brokering of weapons, ammunition, and related war equipment, with the aim of bringing Canadian law more closely in line with the international Arms Trade Treaty. It expands the legal definition of "arms, ammunition, implements or munitions of war" to explicitly include the parts, components, and technology needed to assemble or use them. It also stops the government from exempting these items from export controls simply because of which country they're going to, and it bans the use of "general" permits (blanket approvals that skip individual review) for exporting or brokering these military goods.

The bill also tightens the rules the Minister must follow before approving an export or brokering permit. It adds a new requirement to consider whether the destination country is a party to the Arms Trade Treaty, and expands the risks that must be assessed to cover harm happening either in the destination country or wherever the goods end up being used. In cases where there's a serious risk the goods could be used for war crimes or violations of international humanitarian or human rights law, the Minister must obtain an end-use certificate from the recipient government, if doing so would meaningfully reduce that risk.

Additionally, the Minister will be required to prepare and table in Parliament an annual public report specifically on arms exports, listing permits issued, types and quantities of goods exported and their destinations, the reasoning behind risk assessments, any permits denied, and steps taken to ensure Canada complies with the Arms Trade Treaty.

Finally, the bill includes transition rules: permits issued before the law takes effect will expire 180 days after royal assent and, if the goods haven't yet been exported, will be treated as new applications subject to the updated rules, reviewed on an expedited basis. Pending applications not yet decided will also be assessed under the new rules. One existing general permit for exporting treaty-covered items to the United States is allowed to remain valid for 180 days after the law takes effect, despite the general ban on such permits.

This bill amends the Export and Import Permits Act to expand the definition of "arms, ammunition, implements or munitions of war," bar country-based exemptions and general permits for such goods, add end-use certificate requirements, and create new annual reporting duties for the Minister.

• Definition expanded — the term "arms, ammunition, implements or munitions of war" is defined to include parts, components and technology necessary for their assembly or use, extending the Act's reach to related items not previously named.
• Restrictions on Minister's discretion — the Minister is barred from exempting such goods from the Export Control List based on destination country, and cannot issue general export permits or general brokering permits for them; these are prohibitions on action rather than grants of new power.
• End-use certificate requirement — the Minister must require an end-use certificate from a destination government before issuing certain export or brokering permits, but only where the Minister judges there is a "substantial risk" of war crimes or human rights violations and that a certificate would "sufficiently mitigate" that risk — both judgments left to ministerial discretion with no defined criteria in the bill.
• New regulatory authority — the Governor in Council (Cabinet) may make regulations respecting the form and content of these end-use certificates, leaving those details to future regulation rather than the bill itself.
• Annual reporting to Parliament — the Minister must table, by May 31 each year, a report on arms exports and Canada's compliance with the Arms Trade Treaty, including permit lists, quantities, values, destinations, and summaries of factors considered and permits denied; the report is tabled but not subject to a vote or further review process specified in the bill.
• Transitional permit expiry — permits issued before royal assent expire 180 days after that date, triggering deemed new applications to be reviewed on an expedited basis under the amended Act, and General Export Permit No. 47 (covering exports to the United States) is deemed valid for the same 180-day period despite the new ban on general permits.