Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2678 actions· ✨ 92 recent

Canada made SOR/2025-228, Regulations Amending the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations, registered 2025-11-06 and announced by Minister Anand on 2025-11-12. The regulations add 13 individuals to Part 1 of Schedule 1, 11 entities to Part 2 of Schedule 1, and 100 vessels (by IMO number) to Schedule 1.1, freezing their Canadian assets and prohibiting dealings. Targets include Russian LNG-trading entities, drone-programme developers, cyber-infrastructure suppliers for hybrid operations against Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan-based financial enablers (including Capital Bank of Central Asia and the A7 payments platform) used to evade earlier Russia sanctions. The 100-vessel designation targets Russia's "shadow fleet" used to move crude oil, LNG and arms while evading the G7 price cap and flag-state controls.

Canada's Budget 2025 (released 4 November 2025) creates the First and Last Mile Fund (FLMF), allocating $371.8 million over four years starting in 2026-27 to Natural Resources Canada to address transport and utility bottlenecks connecting near-term critical-minerals production sites to deep-water ports and downstream processing facilities. The fund absorbs the existing Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund and leverages its envelope to provide up to $1.5 billion in total support through 2029-30. The FLMF is structurally distinct from the CMSF (equity/debt vehicle), the CMETC (exploration tax credit), and the Clean Tech ITC (manufacturing tax credit) — it is the infrastructure-grant instrument completing Canada's critical-minerals programme architecture.

The Canada Infrastructure Bank, a federal Crown corporation, committed a CAD 1 billion (approx. USD 734.9 million) below-market-rate credit facility to BC Ferries, split into a CAD 690 million tranche for four new hybrid "Major Vessels" and a CAD 310 million tranche for terminal electrification infrastructure. The financing replaces vessels between 48 and 61 years old and is projected to save BC Ferries roughly CAD 650 million in interest costs over the loan term versus private-market financing. The vessel-construction contract was separately awarded to China Merchants Industry Weihai Shipyards (CMI Weihai), a Chinese state-owned shipbuilder, making this a case of Canadian federal concessional financing underwriting offshore (Chinese) vessel procurement rather than domestic shipbuilding capacity.

Canada made SOR/2025-142, Regulations Amending the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations, registered 2025-06-13. The regulations add 34 Russian entities to Part 2 of Schedule 1 alongside Keremet Bank Open Joint-Stock Company (Kyrgyzstan), three UAE-based entities, one Singapore-based entity, and two energy-commodity trading companies (Switzerland, Azerbaijan) — all designated as sanctions-evasion intermediaries for Russian trade. The amendments also add 201 vessels (by IMO number) to Schedule 1.1 as part of Russia's "shadow fleet," triggering a dealings ban, asset freeze, and a new prohibition on providing financial or other services to non-Canadians in relation to a listed vessel.

Canada made SOR/2025-33, Regulations Amending the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations, registered and effective 2025-02-21. The regulations add 32 individuals (Schedule 1, Part 1) and 44 entities (Schedule 1, Part 2) tied to Russia's military-industrial base, sanctions circumvention, disinformation and the forced deportation/filtration of Ukrainian children. A new Schedule 1.1 lists 109 vessels by IMO number — 92 oil tankers and 9 LNG tankers moving Russian energy exports to third countries, plus 8 vessels moving arms and related material between Russia, Iran and North Korea — banning their access to Canadian ports and waters and prohibiting dealings, asset provision and financial/other services in relation to them.

Canada amended the Special Economic Measures (Belarus) Regulations via SOR/2022-075, registered and in force 5 April 2022, in response to Belarus's support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The amendment prohibits any person in Canada and any Canadian outside Canada from providing insurance, reinsurance or underwriting services for aviation and aerospace products owned, controlled, registered to, chartered by or operated by Belarus or a Belarusian person. A new section 3.6 separately establishes export prohibitions on goods and technologies listed on a Belarus Restricted Goods and Technologies List, incorporated by reference, aligning Canada's Belarus measures with its parallel Russia export-control regime. The same instrument added nine individuals (Belarusian oligarchs and defence officials) to the Schedule 1 asset-freeze list, outside this action's scope.

Canada amended the Special Economic Measures (Russia) Regulations via SOR/2022-067, registered and in force 24 March 2022, establishing a new "Restricted Goods and Technologies List" and prohibiting any person in Canada, and any Canadian outside Canada, from exporting, selling, supplying or shipping any listed good or technology to Russia or to any person in Russia. The list is maintained and published separately by Global Affairs Canada and covers items with dual civilian/military applications across electronics, computers, telecommunications, sensors and lasers, navigation and avionics, marine, aerospace and transportation equipment.