Orders in Council

Most Federal Decisions Never Get a Vote in Parliament. They're Made by Cabinet — Here's How.

An enormous portion of federal governing happens outside the legislative process that this site tracks. Parliament passes statutes that delegate authority to the Governor in Council (the Governor General acting on cabinet's advice) and to ministers, who then exercise that authority through Orders in Council (OICs) and regulations. OICs appoint judges, deputy ministers, ambassadors, and heads of agencies; bring statutes (or specific sections) into force; impose tariffs and sanctions; and trigger emergency powers. Regulations — the detailed rules that fill in how a statute actually operates — are made under authority a parent act grants, published in the Canada Gazette, and reviewed by the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations. None of this requires a Commons vote: cabinet acts, the instrument is registered and published, and it has the force of law. The accountability is real but indirect — regulations must stay within the bounds of their enabling statute (or courts can strike them down), and a government answers politically for its choices — but there is no equivalent to the recorded division, debate, and committee study that legislation receives.