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Paramountcy - Conflict. Canada (Attorney General) v. Monette
In Canada (Attorney General) v. Monette (Fed CA, 2024) the Federal Court of Appeal allowed a Crown JR, here from a CIRB decision involving the unpaid wage provisions of the Canada Labour Code.
Here the court notes a potential conflict of law:[22] However, the Board’s analysis does not consider the fact that Western Express deals with the application of two federal statutes. In the case at hand, it is the application of a provincial statute to a plan established by a federal statute. The analysis differs depending on whether two statutes passed by the same legislator can coexist without conflict or whether a provincial statute can supplement a federal statute if it is silent (see, in particular, Ruth Sullivan, The Construction of Statutes, 7th ed., Markham, ON, LexisNexis, 2022, § 11.03[4]; Canada (Attorney General) v. St-Hilaire, 2001 FCA 63, leave to appeal to the SCC denied, 28643 (November 29, 2001). The Board’s reasons do not make that distinction.
[23] Furthermore, the Board does not make any comparative analysis of the provisions at issue and, in particular, does not consider whether there are differences between section 119 of the CBCA and section 154 of the BCA. It is therefore difficult to understand how it could assimilate the two provisions and give them the same effect because although they are similar in several respects, there are differences between them.
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