Remote Sensing Space Systems Act (S.C. 2005, c. 45)

Requests for Information

Marginal note:Notice for disclosure of information

• 19 (1) The Minister may send a notice to any person who the Minister believes on reasonable grounds has any information or document relevant to the administration or enforcement of this Act, requesting the person to provide that information or document, within any reasonable period that the Minister specifies, to the Minister or any person whom the Minister designates.

• Marginal note:Application for court order

  (2) If a person objects to providing or fails to provide the Minister or a designated person, as the case may be, with any requested information or document within the specified period, the Minister may apply to a judge of a superior court of a province or of the Federal Court for an order requiring the person to provide it.

• Marginal note:Notice of hearing

  (3) The Minister shall give the person at least seven days notice of the hearing of the application.

• Marginal note:Order

  (4) On hearing the application, the judge may order the person to provide the information or documents if the judge concludes that providing them is necessary for any purpose relating to the administration or enforcement of this Act and that the public interest in having the information or documents provided outweighs in importance any other interest, including privacy interest, of the person.

Regulations

Marginal note:Regulations

• 20 (1) On the recommendation of the Minister, the Governor in Council may make regulations

  • (a) prescribing a process or series of processes that is or is not to be considered to transform raw data;

  • (b) prescribing classes of persons for the purpose of paragraph 6(d);

  • (c) respecting the issuance, amendment and renewal of licences, including

    • (i) prescribing the manner and form of making applications,

    • (ii) respecting information, documents or undertakings — including the system disposal plan and arrangements referred to in subsection 9(1) — to be provided in support of applications,

    • (iii) prescribing fees for applications or the manner of calculating them,

    • (iv) respecting security assessments of proposed or actual licensees or system participants, and

    • (v) prescribing conditions of licences;

  • (d) requiring notice of any change — of which the licensee has knowledge — in any information that has been provided in connection with an application;

  • (e) respecting the suspension or cancellation of licences;

  • (f) respecting the operation of licensed systems;

  • (g) requiring periodic or special reports concerning licensed systems;

  • (g.1) respecting the archiving of raw data, including the public access to the archived data;

  • (h) respecting the keeping of records;

  • (i) prescribing fees, including periodic fees, for a licence, or the manner of calculating those fees, and when they are to be paid;

  • (j) respecting the determination of amounts that may be paid under subsection 22(2);

  • (k) for carrying out sections 23 and 25, including

    • (i) designating any provision of this Act or of any regulation, order or direction made under this Act or any requirement of such a provision or any condition or class of conditions of a licence or provision or class of provisions of a system disposal plan as a provision, requirement or condition whose contravention may be proceeded with as a violation,

    • (ii) prescribing the maximum administrative monetary penalty for a particular violation, which maximum may not exceed $5,000, in the case of an individual, and $25,000, in any other case,

    • (iii) prescribing criteria to be taken into account in determining the amount of a proposed penalty,

    • (iv) respecting compliance agreements, and

    • (v) respecting appeals;

  • (l) respecting the giving or service of notices under this Act;

  • (m) respecting the making of representations under this Act;

  • (n) prescribing anything that is to be prescribed under this Act; and

  • (o) generally, for carrying out the purposes and provisions of this Act.

• Marginal note:Regulations may vary

  (2) Regulations made under subsection (1) may vary according to any criterion or combination of criteria or by class of remote sensing space system, operator or activity.

• Marginal note:Incorporation by reference

  (3) For greater certainty, a regulation made under subsection (1) incorporating by reference any classifications, standards, procedures, spec­ifications or rules may incorporate them as they are amended from time to time.

Delegation

Marginal note:Minister

• 21 (1) The Minister

  • (a) may not delegate the exercise of the Minister’s powers under subsection 4(3) or 14(1);

  • (b) may delegate only to his or her deputy minister the exercise of the Minister’s powers under subsection 15(1); and

  • (c) may delegate to any officer or class of officers — or, with the consent of the Minister of National Defence, a member or class of members of the Canadian Forces — the exercise of any other powers of the Minister under this Act.

• Marginal note:Minister of National Defence

  (2) The Minister of National Defence

  • (a) may not delegate the exercise of that minister’s powers under subsection 14(2); and

  • (b) may delegate only to his or her deputy minister or the Chief of the Defence Staff the exercise of that minister’s powers under subsection 15(2).

• Marginal note:Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

  (3) The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness may delegate only to

  • (a) the Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police the exercise of that minister’s powers under paragraph 15(3)(a);

  • (b) the Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service the exercise of that minister’s powers under paragraph 15(3)(b); and

  • (c) the Deputy Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness the exercise of that minister’s powers under paragraph 15(3)(c).

No Liability

Marginal note:No right to compensation

• 22 (1) No person is entitled to financial compensation from Her Majesty in right of Canada for any financial losses resulting from any of the following actions taken in good faith: the amendment of a system disposal plan or arrangements under subsection 9(3); the amendment of a licence under section 10; the suspension of a licence under section 11; the cancellation of a licence under section 12; or, the making of an order under section 13, 14 or 15.

• Marginal note:Authority to make payment

  (2) A minister may pay a licensee an amount determined in accordance with the regulations for the service provided as a result of an order made by that minister under section 15.

Administrative Monetary Penalties

Violations

Marginal note:Violations

23 Every person who contravenes a provision, requirement or condition designated under subparagraph 20(1)(k)(i) commits a violation and is liable to an administrative monetary penalty not exceeding the maximum prescribed or, if no maximum has been prescribed, to a penalty not exceeding $5,000, in the case of an individual, and $25,000, in any other case.

Enforcement Officers

Marginal note:Designation of enforcement officers

• 24 (1) The Minister may designate as enforcement officers for the purposes of this Act persons or classes of persons that the Minister considers qualified.

• Marginal note:Certification of designated persons

  (2) Enforcement officers are to receive a certificate attesting to their designation and shall, on demand, present the certificate to any person from whom they request information in the course of their duties or functions.

• Marginal note:Status of inspector

  (3) Every enforcement officer is, in carrying out their duties and functions, an inspector.

Notices of Violation

Marginal note:Issuance and service

• 25 (1) If an enforcement officer believes on reasonable grounds that a person has committed a violation, the officer may issue, and shall cause to be served on the person, a notice of violation.

• Marginal note:Contents of notice

  (2) The Minister may establish the form and content of notices of violation, but each notice of violation must

  • (a) name the person believed to have committed a violation;

  • (b) identify the violation;

  • (c) set out the penalty that the enforcement officer proposes to impose;

  • (d) inform the person that they may, within 30 days after the notice is served or within any longer period specified in the notice, either pay the penalty set out in the notice or make representations to the officer with respect to the alleged violation or proposed penalty — including any representations about entering into a compliance agreement — and set out the manner for doing so; and

  • (e) inform the person that, if they do not pay the penalty or make representations in accordance with the notice, they will be considered to have committed the violation and the officer may impose a penalty in respect of it.

• Marginal note:Criteria for penalty

  (3) The amount of a proposed penalty is, in each case, to be determined taking into account the following matters:

  • (a) the degree of intention or negligence on the part of the person who committed the violation;

  • (b) the harm done by the violation;

  • (c) the person’s history of prior violations or convictions under this Act during the five-year period immediately before the violation;

  • (d) any prescribed criteria; and

  • (e) any other relevant matter.

Determination of Responsibility and Penalty

Payment of Penalty

Marginal note:Payment

26 If the person pays the penalty proposed in the notice of violation, the person is considered to have committed the violation and proceedings in respect of it are ended.

Making Representations

Marginal note:Making of representations

• 27 (1) If the person alleged to have committed a violation makes representations, the enforcement officer shall either

  • (a) enter into a compliance agreement with the person on behalf of the Minister; or

  • (b) decide on a balance of probabilities whether the person committed the violation and, if so, impose the penalty proposed, a lesser penalty or no penalty, taking into account the matters mentioned in subsection 25(3).

  The enforcement officer shall cause notice of any decision made under paragraph (b) to be issued and served on the person together with notice of the person’s right of appeal under subsection 29(1).

• Marginal note:Compliance agreements

  (2) In the course of the making of representations, an enforcement officer may, on behalf of the Minister, enter into a compliance agreement with the person alleged to have committed a violation on any terms that the officer considers satisfactory. The terms

  • (a) must provide for payment by the person to the Receiver General of a specified amount not greater than the penalty proposed in the notice of violation if the person does not comply with the agreement; and

  • (b) may provide for the giving of reasonable security, in a form and an amount that the officer considers satisfactory, for the person’s performance of the agreement.

• Marginal note:Agreement ends proceedings

  (3) Entry into a compliance agreement ends the violation proceedings and precludes any further violation or offence proceedings in relation to the act or omission in question.

• Marginal note:If agreement not complied with

  (4) The Minister may issue and serve a notice of default on a person who has entered into a compliance agreement but has not complied with it. On service of the notice, the person is liable to pay without delay the amount provided for in the agreement, failing which, the Minister may realize or enforce any security for the person’s performance of the agreement.

Responsibility

Marginal note:Failure to act

28 A person who neither pays the penalty nor makes representations in accordance with the notice of violation is considered to have committed the violation, and the enforcement officer shall impose the penalty proposed and notify the person of it.