Chapter Thirteen Definitions

Article 13: Definitions of General Application

In this Agreement, except as otherwise provided:

Agreement means Trade and Cooperation Agreement between Ontario and Québec signed on September 11, 2009 and entered into force on October 1, 2009;

Agreement on Internal Trade means the intergovernmental accord signed by the federal, provincial and territorial governments of Canada on July 18, 1994, which came into force on July 1, 1995, as amended;

business day means any day other than a Saturday or Sunday or a holiday;

cultural industries means persons engaged in any of the following activities:

  1. the publication, distribution, or sale of books, magazines, periodicals or newspapers in print or electronic form but not including the sole activity of printing or typesetting any of the foregoing;
  2. the production, distribution, sale or exhibition of film or video recordings;
  3. the production, distribution, sale or exhibition of audio or video music recordings;
  4. the publication, distribution or sale of music in print or electronic form; or
  5. radio communications in which the transmissions are intended for direct reception by the general public, and all radio, television, cable broadcasting undertakings and all satellite programming and broadcast network services;

day or days means a calendar day or days and includes weekends and holidays;

document means information inscribed on a medium where the information is delimited and structured, according to the medium used, by tangible or logical features and is intelligible in the form of words, sounds or images. The information may be rendered using any type of writing, including a system of symbols that may be transcribed into words, sounds or images or another system of symbols;

enterprise means an entity constituted, established or organized under applicable laws, whether or not for profit and whether privately-owned or governmentally-owned;

environment means the components of territories of the Parties and includes, but is not limited to:

  1. land, water and air, including all layers of the atmosphere, or any combination or part thereof;
  2. plant and animal life, including human life; and
  3. the interacting ecological systems which include paragraphs (a) and (b);

environmental measure means a measure to protect and conserve the environment, including a measure to protect human, animal or plant life or health;

existing measure means a measure adopted before the date of entry into force of this Agreement, being October 1, 2009;

government entities means any agencies, associations, boards, commissions, corporations, trusts or similar bodies that are owned or controlled by a Party;

harmonization means making identical or minimizing the differences between regulations, technical regulations, technical measures, standards or related measures of similar scope;

holidays mean:

  1. New Years Day and next day (January 1 and 2);
  2. Ontario’s Family Day (third Monday in February);
  3. Good Friday (Friday before Easter);
  4. Easter Monday (Monday after Easter);
  5. Ontario’s Victoria Day/Québec’s National Patriot’s Day (Monday before May 25);
  6. Québec’s National Holiday (June 24) or the next Monday, when June 24 falls on a weekend;
  7. The anniversary of Confederation (July 1) or the next Monday, when July 1 falls on a weekend;
  8. Ontario’s Civic Holiday (first Monday in August);
  9. Labour Day (first Monday in September);
  10. Thanksgiving (second Monday in October);
  11. Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the next day (December 24, 25, 26); and
  12. New Year’s Eve (December 31).

Internal Trade Secretariat means the body established to provide administrative and operational support to the functioning of the Agreement on Internal Trade;

investment includes:

  1. the establishment, acquisition or expansion of an enterprise; and
  2. financial assets, such as money, shares, bonds, debentures, partnership rights, receivables, inventories, capital assets, options and goodwill;

Joint Committee on Regulatory Cooperation means the committee established pursuant to paragraph 1 of Article 3.6 (Joint Committee on Regulatory Cooperation) of the Agreement;

measure includes any legislation, regulation, directive, requirement, guideline, program, policy, administrative practice or other procedure;

Ministerial Council means the council established pursuant to Article 2.2 (Ministerial Council) of this Agreement;

mutual recognition means the acceptance by a Party of a person, good, service or investment that conforms with an equivalent standard or standards-related measure of another Party without modification, testing, certification, renaming or undergoing any other duplicative conformity assessment procedure;

new measure means a measure adopted on or after the date of entry into force of this Agreement, being October 1, 2009 including any amendments or replacements of a measure, but does not include a renewal or extension of a measure;

non-Party means other Canadian provinces or territories, the federal government and foreign sovereign states;

Party means a Party to this Agreement and Parties means all of the Parties to this Agreement;

person means a natural person or an enterprise;

Private Sector Advisory Committee means the committee established pursuant to Article 2.4 (Private Sector Advisory Committee) of this Agreement;

reconciliation and terms of similar import means to reconcile, by harmonization, mutual recognition, or other means, regulatory and standards-related measures.

regulation means a regulatory requirement, as defined in Article 3.9 (Definitions);

Regulatory Registry means the public internet site maintained by the Government of Ontario on which regulatory proposals that may affect business are posted, located at http://www.ontariocanada.com/registry;

Secretariat means the Secretariat established pursuant to Article 2.3 (Secretariat);

Standard means a document approved by a recognized body, including those accredited by Canada’s National Standards System, that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, with which compliance is not mandatory. It may also include or deal exclusively with terminology, symbols, packaging, marking or labelling requirements as they apply to a product, process or production method;

standards-related measures means a measure that incorporates a standard and may also set out the requirements and procedures to ensure conformity or compliance;

sustainable development means development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development is based on a long-term approach which takes into account the inextricable nature of the environmental, social and economic dimensions of development activities.