Canada National Parks Act (S.C. 2000, c. 32)

Regulations

Marginal note:Regulations

• 16 (1) The Governor in Council may make regulations respecting

  • (a) the preservation, control and management of parks;

  • (b) the protection of flora, soil, waters, fossils, natural features, air quality, and cultural, historical and archaeological resources;

  • (c) the protection of fauna, the taking of specimens of fauna for scientific or propagation purposes, and the destruction or removal of dangerous or superabundant fauna;

  • (d) the management and regulation of fishing;

  • (e) the prevention and remedying of any obstruction or pollution of waterways;

  • (f) the prevention and extinguishment of fire on park lands or threatening park lands;

  • (g) the issuance, amendment and termination of leases, licences of occupation and easements or servitudes, and the acceptance of the surrender or resiliation of leases and the relinquishment of licences of occupation and easements or servitudes, of or over public lands

    • (i) in park communities, for the purposes of residence, schools, churches, hospitals, trade, tourism and places of recreation or entertainment,

    • (ii) in existing resort subdivisions, for the purpose of residence,

    • (iii) outside park communities and existing resort subdivisions, for the purposes of schools, churches, hospitals, service stations, tourism and places for the accommodation, recreation or education of visitors to parks, and

    • (iv) in the town of Banff, for the purpose of the exercise by a local government body of functions specified in the agreement referred to in section 35;

  • (h) the restriction or prohibition of activities and the control of the use of park resources and facilities;

  • (i) the establishment, operation, maintenance and administration of works and services of a public character, such as water, sewage, electricity, telephone, gas, fire protection, garbage removal and disposal and cemeteries, including the designation, granting and maintenance of plots in cemeteries, and respecting the use of those works and services;

  • (j) the establishment, maintenance, administration and use of roads, streets, highways, parking areas, sidewalks, streetworks, trails, wharves, docks, bridges and other improvements, and the circumstances under which they must be open or may be closed to public traffic or use;

  • (k) the control of traffic on roads, streets and highways and elsewhere in parks, including the regulation of the speed, operation and parking of vehicles;

  • (l) the surveying of public lands, the making of plans of surveyed lands, the delimitation in such plans of the boundaries of park communities, existing resort subdivisions and cemeteries, their designation as towns, visitor centres, resort subdivisions or cemeteries and the subdividing of lands so designated;

  • (m) the control of the location, standards, design, materials, construction, maintenance, removal and demolition of buildings, structures, facilities, signs and other improvements and the establishment of zones governing uses of land and buildings;

  • (n) the control of businesses, trades, occupations, amusements, sports and other activities or undertakings, including activities related to commercial ski facilities referred to in section 36, and the places where such activities and undertakings may be carried on;

  • (o) the preservation of public health and the prevention of disease;

  • (p) the inspection of buildings, structures, facilities and other improvements for the purpose of the enforcement of regulations made under paragraphs (m), (n) and (o);

  • (q) the abatement and prevention of nuisances;

  • (r) the determination of fees, rates, rents and other charges for the use of park resources and facilities, the provision of works and services referred to in paragraph (i) and improvements referred to in paragraph (j), and the issuance and amendment of permits, licences and other authorizing instruments pursuant to subsection (3);

  • (s) public safety, including the control of firearms;

  • (t) the use, transportation and temporary storage of pesticides and other toxic substances;

  • (u) the control of domestic animals, including the impounding or destruction of such animals found at large;

  • (v) the acquisition or disposition of prehistoric and historic objects and reproductions of them and the sale of souvenirs, consumer articles and publications;

  • (w) the authorization of the use of park lands, and the use or removal of flora and other natural objects, by aboriginal people for traditional spiritual and ceremonial purposes;

  • (x) the control of access to parks by air;

  • (y) designating provisions of the regulations for the purpose of subsection 24(1); and

  • (z) the summary removal from a park, by park wardens or enforcement officers, of persons found contravening specified provisions of this Act, the regulations or the Criminal Code, and the exclusion from a park for prescribed periods of those persons or persons convicted of offences under those provisions.

• Marginal note:Roads and other improvements

  (2) The establishment or use of any improvement referred to in paragraph (1)(j) does not operate to withdraw lands from a park.

• Marginal note:Powers of superintendents

  (3) Regulations made under this section may authorize the superintendent of a park, in the circumstances and subject to the limits that may be specified in the regulations,

  • (a) to vary any requirement of the regulations for purposes of public safety or the conservation of natural resources in the park;

  • (b) to issue, amend, suspend and revoke permits, licences and other authorizations in relation to any matter that is the subject of regulations and to set their terms and conditions; and

  • (c) to order the taking of any action to counter any threat to public health or to remedy the consequences of any breach of the regulations in the park.

• Marginal note:No new establishments

  (4) No lease, licence of occupation, easement or servitude may be issued or amended pursuant to regulations made under subparagraph (1)(g)(iii) for the purpose of the establishment of a new park community, resort subdivision, school, church or hospital.

Marginal note:Resource harvesting in certain parks

• 17 (1) The Governor in Council may make regulations respecting the exercise of traditional renewable resource harvesting activities in

  • (a) Wood Buffalo National Park of Canada;

  • (b) Wapusk National Park of Canada;

  • (c) Gros Morne National Park of Canada;

  • (d) any national park of Canada established in the District of Thunder Bay in the Province of Ontario;

  • (e) Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve of Canada; and

  • (f) any national park of Canada established in an area where the continuation of such activities is provided for by an agreement between the Government of Canada and the government of a province respecting the establishment of the park.

• Marginal note:Land claims agreements

  (2) Where an agreement for the settlement of an aboriginal land claim that is given effect by an Act of Parliament makes provision for traditional renewable resource harvesting activities or stone removal activities for carving purposes within any area of a park, or where aboriginal people have existing aboriginal or treaty rights to traditional renewable resource harvesting activities within any area of a park, the Governor in Council may make regulations respecting the carrying on of those activities in that area.

• Marginal note:Regulations respecting resource harvesting

  (3) Regulations made under subsection (1) or (2) may

  • (a) specify what are traditional renewable resource harvesting activities;

  • (b) designate categories of persons authorized to engage in those activities and prescribe the conditions under which they may engage in them;

  • (c) prohibit the use of renewable resources harvested in parks for other than traditional purposes;

  • (d) control traditional renewable resource harvesting activities;

  • (e) authorize the removal and disposal of any equipment or harvested resources left in a park in contravention of the regulations, and provide for the recovery of expenses incurred in their removal and disposal; and

  • (f) notwithstanding anything in this subsection, authorize the superintendent of a park

    • (i) to close areas of the park to traditional renewable resource harvesting activities for purposes of park management, public safety or the conservation of natural resources,

    • (ii) to establish limits on the renewable resources that may be harvested in any period, or to vary any such limits established by the regulations, for purposes of conservation, and

    • (iii) to prohibit or restrict the use of equipment in the park for the purpose of protecting natural resources.

• Marginal note:Removal of carving stone

  (4) In regulations made under subsection (2), subsection (3) may be applied to the removal of stone for carving purposes.

• Marginal note:Variations by superintendent

  (5) Regulations made under this section may authorize the superintendent of a park, in the circumstances described and to the extent provided in the regulations, to vary any requirement of the regulations for purposes of public safety or the conservation of natural resources in the park.

Enforcement

Marginal note:Designation of park wardens

18 The Minister may designate persons appointed under the Parks Canada Agency Act, whose duties include the enforcement of this Act, to be park wardens for the enforcement of this Act and the regulations in any part of Canada and for the preservation and maintenance of the public peace in parks, and for those purposes park wardens are peace officers within the meaning of the Criminal Code.

Marginal note:Designation of enforcement officers

19 The Minister may designate persons or classes of persons employed in the federal public administration or by a provincial, municipal or local authority or an aboriginal government, whose duties include law enforcement, to be enforcement officers for the purpose of the enforcement of specified provisions of this Act or the regulations in relation to specified parks, and for that purpose enforcement officers have the powers and are entitled to the protection provided by law to peace officers within the meaning of the Criminal Code.

Marginal note:Contraventions Act

• 19.1 (1) The Minister may designate persons or classes of persons employed in the federal public administration or by a provincial, municipal or local authority or by an aboriginal government for the purpose of the enforcement of this Act or the regulations with respect to offences that have been designated as contraventions under the Contraventions Act.

• Marginal note:Limitations regarding designations

  (2) The Minister may specify that a designation is in respect of one or more parks or in respect of all or specified offences under this Act that have been designated as contraventions under the Contraventions Act.

Marginal note:Certificate of designation and oath

• 20 (1) Every park warden, enforcement officer and person designated under section 19.1 shall be provided with a certificate of designation in a form approved by the Minister and shall take and subscribe an oath prescribed by the Minister.

• Marginal note:Limitations must be specified

  (2) The certificate must specify the limitations, if any, to which the designation is subject.

Marginal note:Right of passage

20.1 In the discharge of their duties, park wardens and enforcement officers and any persons accompanying them may enter on and pass through or over private property without being liable for doing so and without any person having the right to object to that use of the property.

Marginal note:Immunity

20.2 Park wardens and enforcement officers are not personally liable for anything they do or omit to do in good faith under this Act.

Marginal note:Arrest without warrant

21 A park warden or enforcement officer may, in accordance with the Criminal Code, arrest without warrant any person

• (a) whom the warden or officer finds committing an offence under this Act; or

• (b) who the warden or officer believes, on reasonable grounds, has committed or is about to commit an offence under this Act.

Marginal note:Search and seizure

• 22 (1) A park warden or enforcement officer may

  • (a) enter and search any place and open and examine any package or receptacle in accordance with a warrant issued under subsection (2) at any time during the day or, if so specified in the warrant, during the night; and

  • (b) seize any thing that the warden or officer believes on reasonable grounds is a thing described in subsection (2).

• Marginal note:Authority to issue warrant

  (2) If a justice of the peace, on ex parte application, is satisfied by information on oath that there are reasonable grounds to believe that there is in any place, including any building or any vehicle, vessel or other conveyance, or in any package or receptacle,

  • (a) any thing in relation to which there are reasonable grounds to believe an offence under this Act or the regulations has been committed, or

  • (b) any thing that there are reasonable grounds to believe will afford evidence with respect to the commission of such an offence,

  the justice of the peace may issue a warrant authorizing a park warden or enforcement officer named in the warrant to enter and search the place or to open and examine the package or receptacle, subject to any conditions specified in the warrant.

• Marginal note:Where warrant not necessary

  (3) A park warden or enforcement officer may exercise any powers under subsection (1) without a warrant if the conditions for obtaining a warrant exist but by reason of exigent circumstances it would not be practical to obtain one.

Marginal note:Custody of things seized

• 23 (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3) and sections 28 and 29, where a park warden or enforcement officer seizes a thing under this Act or under a warrant issued pursuant to the Criminal Code,

  • (a) sections 489.1 and 490 of the Criminal Code apply; and

  • (b) the warden or officer, or any person that the warden or officer may designate, shall retain custody of the thing, subject to any order made under section 490 of the Criminal Code.

• Marginal note:Forfeiture where ownership not ascertainable

  (2) If the lawful ownership of or entitlement to a seized thing cannot be ascertained within 30 days after its seizure, the thing or any proceeds of its disposition are forfeited to Her Majesty in right of Canada, if the thing was seized by a park warden or by an enforcement officer employed in the federal public administration, or to Her Majesty in right of a province, if the thing was seized by an enforcement officer employed by a provincial, municipal or local authority or an aboriginal government.

• Marginal note:Perishable things

  (3) If a seized thing is perishable, the park warden or enforcement officer may dispose of it or destroy it, and any proceeds of its disposition shall be paid to the lawful owner or person lawfully entitled to possession of the thing, unless proceedings under this Act are commenced within 90 days after its seizure, or shall be retained by the warden or officer pending the outcome of those proceedings.