Ottawa’s Impact Assessment Act has been declared “largely unconstitutional“ five-and-a-half years after the legislation was first tabled in the House of Commons, prompting questions on whether Ottawa should have posed a reference question to the Supreme Court before the bill was ever introduced.
A reference question, or reference case, is a submission by the government to the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) asking for an advisory opinion, particularly in relation to the constitutionality of a piece of legislation.
