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Reasons - Ministerial Orders. Prince Edward Island Potato Board v. Canada (Agriculture and Agri-Food)
In Prince Edward Island Potato Board v. Canada (Agriculture and Agri-Food) (Fed CA, 2024) the Federal Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal from an earlier dismissed JR, here against "an [SS: Ministerial] Order issued by the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food [Minister] under section 15(3) of the Plant Protection Act, SC 1990, c 22, declaring the entire province of Prince Edward Island [PEI] as "“a place infested with potato wart”" and prohibiting the movement of PEI seed potatoes from PEI without written authorization from an inspector [Ministerial Order]".
Here the court considers 'reasons' in a Ministerial Order context:[58] In circumstances where no formal reasons are provided, such as when the Minister issues an order under subsection 15(3) of the Act, a reviewing court "“must look to the record as a whole to understand the decision”" and, in doing so, "“will often uncover a clear rationale for the decision”": Vavilov at para. 137. Where no reasons are provided and neither the record nor the larger context sheds light on the basis for the decision, "“the reviewing court must still examine the decision in light of the relevant constraints on the decision maker in order to determine whether the decision is reasonable,”" an analysis that inevitably focuses on the outcome rather than on the reasoning process: Vavilov at para. 138.
[59] As noted by the Federal Court, the Ministerial Order does not itself contain an analysis of the question whether the requirements of subsection 15(3) of the Act are satisfied: FC Decision at para. 85. Where the administrative decision maker has not explicitly considered the meaning of a relevant provision in its reasons, the reviewing court may still be able to discern the interpretation adopted by the decision maker from the record and determine whether that interpretation is reasonable: Vavilov at para. 123; Safe Food Matters Inc. v. Canada (Attorney General), 2022 FCA 19, [2022] F.C.J. No. 96 at para. 41.
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