An Act to amend the Energy Efficiency Act

This bill updates the Energy Efficiency Act, the federal law that sets energy performance rules for products sold or shipped across provinces or imported into Canada. It expands who the law covers: alongside "dealers" (manufacturers, importers, and sellers), it now also captures "commercial entities" that use energy products for business purposes, and it broadens what counts as a regulated product to keep pace with new technologies. It also adds a new stated purpose for the law: promoting energy efficiency, responsible energy use, the shift to a low-carbon economy, innovation, and collaboration with Indigenous peoples and provinces.

The bill gives the Minister of Natural Resources significant new powers. The Minister can grant temporary exemptions from the Act or its regulations (up to six months, or up to three years and renewable to six years) to allow testing of new products or approaches, particularly to support innovation and economic growth. The Minister can also order companies to take "corrective measures" (like halting sale or import of a non-compliant product), with a review process for companies to challenge such orders. Inspectors get clearer powers to inspect premises (including remotely), seize products, and demand information, including from digital tools like modelling software.

The law's enforcement toolkit is strengthened and modernized. It introduces a new system of administrative monetary penalties (fines issued without going to court) for violations, on top of updated and much higher criminal fines for offences like shipping non-compliant products or providing false information. It also explicitly bans misleading labelling or advertising about a product's energy efficiency. Finally, the bill requires the Minister to periodically report to Parliament on how the law is being administered, how Canadian standards compare internationally, and to review the Act's overall operation every five years.

This bill amends the Energy Efficiency Act to expand its scope to new market actors, create ministerial powers to grant exemptions from the Act, add inspection and enforcement tools including administrative monetary penalties, and give the Minister of Natural Resources authority to order corrective measures.

• Exemption powers — the Minister may exempt any person, product, or class of products from any provision of the Act or its regulations for up to six months (for harmonization, error correction, or "exceptional circumstances"), or for up to three years, extendable to a total of six years, if satisfied the exemption serves the public interest, including to "stimulate innovation, competitiveness or economic growth"; these exemption orders are exempt from the Statutory Instruments Act and confidential business information submitted with an application must not be published.
• Corrective measures and enforcement roles — the Minister may order a dealer or commercial entity to stop importing, shipping, labelling, selling, advertising or testing a product, or take "any other measure that the Minister considers necessary"; the Minister may also designate inspectors, enforcement officers, and review officers (internal reviewers of the Minister's own orders), with inspectors empowered to enter and search places (including remotely by telecommunication), seize products, and access computer systems.
• Administrative monetary penalties (AMPs) — a new penalty system lets the Minister designate persons to issue violation notices, with penalties up to $5,000 for individuals and $25,000 for others per violation (each day of continuing violation counts separately), decided on a balance of probabilities, with the Minister's own decision on review being final and not subject to court appeal except judicial review.
• Criminal penalties — fines for offences are set at up to $250,000 (summary, first offence) to $5,000,000 (indictable, subsequent offence), with no imprisonment permitted in default of payment.
• Information-sharing and reporting duties — the Minister may enter into information-sharing agreements with foreign governments or international organizations, including disclosure of personal information under specified public-interest conditions, and is granted immunity from civil or criminal proceedings for good-faith disclosures; regulated entities must retain records for six years and file reports containing broad categories of energy, sales, and equipment data as prescribed by the Governor in Council (Cabinet).
• Oversight — the Act requires periodic reports to Parliament (administration/enforcement every two years, standards comparison every three years, full statutory review every five years), but many operational decisions (exemptions, corrective orders, penalty amounts) rest with the Minister's discretion without a sunset clause on those powers themselves.