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Statutes and Regulations - Interpretation Act (Fed). 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 an aspect of the federal Interpretation Act, which renders local statute interpretation provisions generally applicable to "all other enactments relating to the same subject-matter unless a contrary intention appears" [IA s.15(2)(b)]:[50] Before the Federal Court and on this appeal, the parties agreed that the term "“infested”" in section 15(3) of the Act takes its meaning from the definition set out at section 2 of the Regulations, which imports the application of the reasonable suspicion standard. Before this Court, the Appellant submitted that this follows from paragraph 15(2)(b) of the Interpretation Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. I-21, which states that an interpretation section contained in an enactment, defined in subsection 2(1) of that Act as including an act or regulation or any portion thereof, is to be read and construed "“as being applicable to all other enactments relating to the same subject-matter unless a contrary intention appears.”" The Federal Court adopted the parties’ agreement as the basis for its analysis of the reasonableness of the Ministerial Order.
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