An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying)
Summary
- Allows individuals whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable to sign a written agreement to receive MAID on a specified date, even if they later lose capacity to consent.
- Enables people with serious, incurable illnesses expected to lead to incapacity to make advance written declarations waiving final consent for MAID, provided specified symptoms occur and safeguards are met.
- Aligns federal Criminal Code MAID provisions more closely with Quebec’s approach by recognizing advance requests tied to future incapacity.
- Preserves MAID safeguards while adapting them to apply in advance-request and loss-of-capacity situations.
Builder Assessment
Overall, this bill is largely outside economic policy but modestly supports Build Canada’s emphasis on reducing bureaucratic inertia and improving public-sector efficiency. It does not create conflicts with growth, trade, or tax incentives, leaving most tenets neutral and netting a limited positive alignment.
- Aligns by streamlining MAID processes and offering clearer, earlier documentation that can reduce administrative friction and costs.
- Neutral on growth, productivity, exports, investment, and tax reform; no direct economic levers.
- To strengthen alignment: add a standardized digital advance-request registry, national data standards, and reporting to quantify cost/time savings; include sunset review to refine processes and reduce red tape; ensure interprovincial interoperability to avoid duplication.
Principles Analysis
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Canada should aim to be the world's most prosperous country.
Primarily a health-consent reform with minimal direct effect on national wealth creation.
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Promote economic freedom, ambition, and breaking from bureaucratic inertia (reduce red tape).
Expands individual choice and streamlines access to a legal service, reducing procedural bottlenecks and uncertainty in the health system.
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Drive national productivity and global competitiveness, including removing interprovincial trade barriers and improving labour mobility (one country, one market).
No direct mechanisms to boost productivity or competitiveness; any efficiency gains are indirect and limited to healthcare processes.
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Grow exports of Canadian products and resources, and move up the value chain by processing resources domestically rather than exporting them raw.
Unrelated to trade or export capacity.
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Encourage investment, innovation, and resource development.
Does not address investment incentives, R&D, or resource development.
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Deliver better public services at lower cost (government efficiency).
Advance directives can reduce repeated capacity assessments, emergency decision-making, and potential legal disputes, improving predictability and potentially lowering administrative costs.
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Reform taxes to incentivize work, risk-taking, and innovation.
No tax provisions.
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Focus on large-scale prosperity, not incrementalism.
A targeted healthcare policy with limited macroeconomic implications.
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Email [email protected]
PartySenate
StatusAt second reading in the Senate
Last updatedJun 12, 2025
TopicsHealthcare, Criminal Justice, Social Issues
Parliament45