How to Track Open Government Consultations in Canada (Federal and Provincial)
Where federal and provincial governments post open consultations and proposed regulations, how comment periods work, and how to make sure you never miss a deadline.
A consultation is the cheapest lobbying you will ever do. The government is asking for your view, on the record, before the decision is made. But consultations are easy to miss. Many are never announced by news release, comment periods can be as short as a few weeks, and every government posts them somewhere different.
This guide covers where each government posts open consultations and proposed regulations, how comment periods work, and a simple system for catching them in time.
Why consultations get missed
There are three separate channels, and most people only watch one.
- Engagement portals. Most governments run a website that lists open surveys, engagement sessions and policy reviews.
- Regulatory gazettes and registries. Proposed regulations are usually published in an official gazette or registry with a formal comment period, and often with no news release at all.
- News releases. Some consultations are launched with a ministerial announcement. Many aren't.
If you only read news releases, you will miss most proposed regulations. If you only check portals, you will miss the consultation a minister announced at a press conference that afternoon.
Federal consultations
Start with the Canada Gazette, Part I. This is where proposed federal regulations are published for comment before they become law. It publishes every Saturday and goes online on Friday at 2 p.m. Eastern. Extra editions come out when needed.
The Gazette keeps a list of open consultations on proposed regulations, each with its deadline. Comment periods vary: recent proposals have had anywhere from 45 days to about seven months. The common federal norm is 30 to 75 days, but the period is set for each proposal, so always read the deadline on the proposal itself.
You can comment online through the Gazette, with or without an account, or by email or mail to the contact named in the proposal. All comments are published.
To get Part I as it is published, subscribe to its RSS feed: https://gazette.gc.ca/rss/p1-eng.xml.
For policy consultations that aren't regulations (program reviews, strategies, discussion papers), the federal directory is Consulting with Canadians. Departments also announce larger consultations on the Canada.ca news centre.
Provincial consultation portals
| Province | Where open consultations are posted | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta | Public engagement search | Filter Status to "Open". Lists public and stakeholder engagements. |
| British Columbia | govTogetherBC | Browse by category, region or status. Results are posted when engagements close. |
| Saskatchewan | Public engagement | Short, curated list of current engagements. Past ones are archived separately. |
| Manitoba | EngageMB | "Published" projects are open and "Archived" ones are closed. |
| Ontario | Environmental Registry of Ontario and the Ontario Regulatory Registry | Environmental proposals go to the ERO, and business-facing regulatory proposals go to the Regulatory Registry. |
| Québec | Consultation Québec | Draft regulations also appear in the Gazette officielle du Québec, generally with a 45-day comment period. |
| New Brunswick | Public consultations and engagements | The clearest list in the country: open and closed sections with closing dates. |
| Nova Scotia | No central portal | Consultations are run and announced by individual departments. Watch news releases. |
| Prince Edward Island | Public consultations | Lists current consultations but no deadlines. Click through to find closing dates. |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | engageNL | Lists recent and active engagements. |
The territories run their own portals: Engage Yukon and the Northwest Territories' Have Your Say. We found no central portal for Nunavut, which tends to announce consultations as news items.
Watch-outs
Ontario's consultations directory is a handy cross-ministry list, but when we checked it was still showing a consultation as "Open" months after it had closed. Use it to find things, then confirm the deadline on the posting itself.
BC's govTogetherBC page was still showing an old election-period banner in September 2026. The listings underneath are what matter.
Stakeholder engagements, such as advisory panels and invite-only sessions, often appear on these portals with no public announcement. If your organization should have been invited and wasn't, the portal is where you'll find out.
A simple system that works
- Subscribe to the Canada Gazette Part I RSS feed. Read the table of contents every Saturday. It takes five minutes.
- Bookmark the portal for each province you work in. Check it every two weeks, or every week during a busy session.
- Watch news releases for anything tagged consultation, engagement, "have your say" or "proposed amendments". Ministers launch the high-profile ones this way.
- When you find one, put the deadline in your calendar immediately, with a reminder 10 business days before. Written submissions take longer than anyone plans for, especially if a board or members need to sign off.
Step 3 is where Government Radar helps. It flags public consultations as a priority alert at the top of your morning digest, across Ottawa and every province you follow. You can also add custom keywords like the name of a regulation or a statute, so you see every release that mentions it. Try it free for 14 days.
What to do once you've found one
Read the whole consultation document, including the questions, before you write anything. Answer the questions that were asked, in the order they were asked. Officials summarizing hundreds of submissions will thank you for it. Give them a number they can use: what the change costs your members, how many jobs or sites are affected, which other jurisdiction already does it better.
But, a submission is not a substitute for a meeting. If the issue matters, use the consultation as the reason to ask for time with the policy lead and the minister's office. Your submission is on the record. The meeting is where you get heard.
Related: every Canadian government newsroom and RSS feed and how to register as a lobbyist.
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