Acts and Regulations
What are we doing
As a department, Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) is responsible for administering acts and regulations, and for implementing government-wide regulatory initiatives:
Acts and regulations
The department is responsible for administering certain federal acts and regulations.
Access these federal acts and regulations at the following links:
Red Tape Reduction Progress Report
On July 9, 2025, the Government of Canada launched a 60-day Red Tape Review across the federal regulatory system to ensure federal regulations achieve their intended goals while supporting an economy that works for everyone. As part of the Government’s commitment to reducing red tape, ESDC has published a progress report outlining both recent achievements and planned initiatives that will support this objective. These activities address issues such as complicated or outdated processes, unnecessary, duplicative or overly burdensome rules. They also seek to improve inefficient or unpredictable regulatory administration or service delivery – while ensuring that red tape reduction efforts maintain program integrity, public safety, and legal compliance. The report demonstrates ESDC’s continued leadership in regulatory modernization and client-centered service transformation, with tangible benefits for employers, beneficiaries and all Canadians.
The report can be found here:
Planned or anticipated changes to regulations (Forward Regulatory Plan, stock review plan, targeted Regulatory Review Sectoral Roadmap)
ESDC publishes a public list, with descriptions, of planned or anticipated federal regulatory changes that the department intends to bring forward over a 24-month period (Forward Regulatory Plan).
The Forward Regulatory Plan landing page includes a link to the department's stock review plan, which is the department's plan to review its entire regulatory stock over a set period of time. The stock review plan includes:
- a list of the regulations that will undergo a review, prioritized in a way that makes sense to the regulator and stakeholders
- a time frame for the review(s)
View the Forward Regulatory Plan at the following links.
Timeliness service standards and performance information
ESDC publishes timeliness service standards and performance information for its services, including services for regulated parties to obtain regulatory authorization such as a permit or licence to engage in a regulated activity.
View timeliness service standards and performance information.
How guidance on regulatory requirements is provided (Policy on Providing Guidance on Regulatory Requirements)
ESDC's Policy on Providing Guidance on Regulatory Requirements:
- outlines the commitments, practices and tools that [department name] applies when providing Canadians and businesses with information and guidance on regulatory obligations to be met
- identifies the conditions under which written responses to questions will be provided
View the department's Policy on Providing Guidance on Regulatory Requirements at the following links.
Number of administrative burden requirements in regulations (Administrative Burden Baseline initiative)
The Administrative Burden Baseline initiative requires departments and agencies to:
- establish a baseline count of federal regulatory requirements that impose administrative burden on business
- annually update and report publicly on the count of baseline requirements
View the number of administrative burden requirements in regulations administered by ESDC at the following links.
All of the Government of Canada's acts and regulations can be found on the Justice Laws website.
Consult the following for links to the Cabinet Directive on Regulation and supporting policies and guidance, and for information on government-wide regulatory initiatives implemented by departments and agencies across the Government of Canada:
To learn about upcoming or ongoing consultations on proposed federal regulations, visit: