Oceans Act (S.C. 1996, c. 31)

Marginal note:Certificate — Minister of Foreign Affairs

• 23. (1) In any legal or other proceedings, a certificate issued by or under the authority of the Minister of Foreign Affairs containing a statement that any geographic location specified in the certificate was, at any time material to the proceedings,

  • (a) in the internal waters of Canada,

  • (b) in the territorial sea of Canada,

  • (c) in the contiguous zone of Canada,

  • (d) in the exclusive economic zone of Canada, or

  • (e) in or above the continental shelf of Canada

  is conclusive proof of the truth of the statement without proof of the signature or official character of the person appearing to have issued the certificate.

• Marginal note:Certificate — Minister of Fisheries and Oceans

  (2) In any legal or other proceedings, a certificate issued by or under the authority of the Minister containing a statement that any geographic location specified in the certificate was, at any time material to the proceedings, within an area of the sea in which a law of the province named in the certificate applies under section 9 or 21 is conclusive proof of the truth of the statement without proof of the signature or official character of the person appearing to have issued the certificate.

• Marginal note:Certificate cannot be compelled

  (3) A certificate referred to in subsection (1) or (2) is admissible in evidence in proceedings referred to in that subsection, but its production cannot be compelled.

Marginal note:Saving

24. Nothing in this Part limits the operation that any Act, rule of law or instrument has apart from this Part.

Marginal note:Recommendation — Minister of Foreign Affairs

25. The Governor in Council may, on the recommendation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, make regulations

• (a) prescribing geographical coordinates of points from which

  • (i) baselines may be determined under subsection 5(2) as straight lines interpreted as geodesics,

  • (ii) in respect of a portion of the territorial sea of Canada prescribed in the regulations, an outer limit line may be determined, where, in the opinion of the Governor in Council, a portion of the territorial sea of Canada determined in accordance with paragraph 4(a) would conflict with the territorial sea of another state or other area of the sea in which another state has sovereign rights or would be unreasonably close to the coast of another state,

  • (iii) in respect of a portion of the exclusive economic zone of Canada or the continental shelf of Canada prescribed in the regulations, an outer limit line may be determined, where, in the opinion of the Governor in Council, a portion of the exclusive economic zone of Canada or the continental shelf of Canada determined in accordance with paragraph 13(1)(a) or 17(1)(a) or (b) would conflict with the territorial sea of another state or other area of the sea in which another state has sovereign rights or would be unreasonably close to the coast of another state or is otherwise inappropriate, and

  • (iv) the outer limit of the exclusive economic zone of Canada or the outer edge of the continental margin or other outer limit of the continental shelf of Canada may be determined; and

• (b) prescribing areas of the sea adjacent to the coast of Canada as fishing zones of Canada.