Bill 36 bundles targeted policy changes and a swathe of technical edits across Alberta statutes. The clearest policy move is in the Consumer Protection Act: the bill reduces the maximum total cost a payday lender may charge from 15% to 14% and lowers the posted “per $100” maximum from $15 to $14, with that change scheduled to come into force on January 1, 2025.
Beyond payday lending, the bill replaces fixed statutory schedules of regulated bodies with regulation‑based prescriptions in several Acts, centralizes ministerial authority to set mark‑ups on liquor and cannabis sold to licensees, and removes regulatory time limits that previously constrained the use of electronic witnessing and deemed presence in a number of personal‑law statutes. Many other amendments are technical cross‑references or wording updates, but the cumulative effect is to shift several operational decisions from statute into regulations and ministerial discretion — a governance shift with practical consequences for regulated professions, licensees and service providers.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill lowers the statutory caps on payday loans (from 15% total cost to 14% and from $15 to $14 per $100 lent) and makes targeted text and structural changes across many Acts: it removes or replaces statutory Schedules with regulation‑prescribed lists, transfers authority to set mark‑ups on liquor and cannabis to the Minister, and deletes statutory time limits that previously confined electronic witnessing/deemed presence to periods prescribed by regulation.
Who It Affects
Directly affected parties include payday lenders and their customers, liquor and cannabis licensees and the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission, regulated professional bodies previously listed in statute Schedules, and users of wills/powers/medical directives who rely on electronic witnessing. Ministries and agencies responsible for drafting implementing regulations also bear immediate work.
Why It Matters
The package combines consumer protection (lower payday costs) with administrative modernization (moving lists into regulations and expanding ministerial pricing authority). That mix changes where key decisions are made — legislatures now set high‑level rules while operational details move to regulations and ministerial direction, altering regulatory predictability and accountability for affected stakeholders.
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What This Bill Actually Does
Start with the Consumer Protection Act. The bill reduces the maximum total cost payday lenders can charge from 15% to 14% and changes the consumer‑facing signage cap from $15 per $100 lent to $14 per $100.
The text explicitly states that this part comes into force on January 1, 2025, so lenders and compliance teams must be ready for the lower cap and updated signage by that date.
Next, the bill removes several statutory constraints that previously limited the use of remote, electronic witnessing to discrete periods prescribed by regulation. It strikes the phrase “during a period prescribed by the regulations” (or equivalent) in multiple acts governing personal directives, powers of attorney, guarantees, and wills and succession.
It also repeals the companion ministerial regulation‑making provisions in some of those Acts. The practical effect is to eliminate the statutory time‑limit language and the specific delegated rulemaking power that enforced it, which makes the electronic deemed‑presence construct no longer explicitly time‑limited in those provisions; practitioners should re‑examine how and when remote witnessing may be used and watch for implementing regulations or agency guidance.The bill also restructures how certain professional and regulatory bodies are identified.
In the Fair Registration Practices Act and the Labour Mobility Act it replaces a schedule that listed specific “regulatory bodies” with a definition that points to regulation for that list, and it repeals the Schedule. That converts what were statute‑listed bodies into a set that the Lieutenant Governor in Council will define in regulations.
For regulated professions and associations that were previously named, this change means their statutory status can now be altered through regulation rather than primary‑law amendment.On the gaming, liquor and cannabis side, the bill updates terminology (changing instances of “age” to “date of birth”), changes employee‑qualification language for cannabis premises, and moves pricing authority: the Minister must determine any mark‑up the Commission must charge on liquor and cannabis sales to licensees, and the Commission must charge the price and mark‑up set by the Minister. Finally, the bill contains a series of housekeeping and cross‑reference edits across municipal, environmental, labour, post‑secondary and other statutes — some renaming departments on coordinating councils and fixing cross‑references; others are small wording fixes.
The Five Things You Need to Know
Consumer Protection Act: the bill reduces the maximum total cost payday lenders may charge from 15% to 14% and lowers the advertised maximum from $15 to $14 per $100; this change comes into force January 1, 2025.
The bill removes the phrase limiting electronic witnessing to “a period prescribed by the regulations” in several Acts (Personal Directives Act, Powers of Attorney Act, Wills and Succession Act and Guarantees Acknowledgment Act), effectively eliminating that statutory time‑limit language.
Fair Registration Practices Act and Labour Mobility Act: the Schedule that listed specific regulatory bodies is repealed and replaced with a rule that the Lieutenant Governor in Council will prescribe regulatory bodies in regulations, shifting additions/removals out of statute.
Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Act: the Minister must now determine any mark‑up on liquor and cannabis sold to licensees, and the Commission must charge the price and mark‑up set by the Minister; the bill also standardizes wording by replacing “age” with “date of birth.”, An Act to End Predatory Lending: the bill repeals subsections that conditioned proclamation on ministerial findings about availability and use of alternatives to payday loans, removing that statutory proclamation trigger.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Reduces payday‑loan caps and updates signage
This part amends two specific provisions: it lowers the numerical cap on the total cost of payday loans from 15% to 14% (s.124.61(1)) and changes the consumer signage language from “$15 per $100 lent” to “$14 per $100 lent” (s.124.8(2)(a)). The text includes an explicit coming‑into‑force date of January 1, 2025, giving lenders, franchisors and storefront operators time to update systems, contracts and posted signs.
Removes temporary regulatory time limits for electronic presence
The bill strikes the phrase that confined deemed presence via electronic communication to periods prescribed by regulation in the Personal Directives Act, Powers of Attorney Act, Wills and Succession Act and Guarantees Acknowledgment Act. It also repeals associated ministerial regulation powers in some of those Acts (for example, sections that expressly allowed the Minister to prescribe periods). Practically, the statutory language that made electronic witnessing temporary is gone — a change that broadens the statutory baseline for remote execution but leaves detail and operational safeguards to regulations or policy.
Replaces statutory Schedules of regulatory bodies with regulation‑based lists
Both Acts remove the Schedule that explicitly named regulatory bodies and replace the definition of “regulatory body” with language delegating that identification to regulations. The Lieutenant Governor in Council’s regulatory authority is also updated (s.23(1)(a) style clauses). For regulated professions and associations, this removes the procedural hurdle of a statute amendment to change the list — but also reduces the public visibility and parliamentary scrutiny of such changes.
Centralizes mark‑up authority and tightens terminology
Several edits change terminology (replacing “age” with “date of birth”) and alter the pricing regime: the Minister now must determine any mark‑up on liquor and cannabis that the Commission sells to licensees, and the Commission is required to charge that price and mark‑up (new subsections 80(1.1) and 80(1.2); parallel change at s.90.12). The cannabis employee requirement is also rephrased so licensees must ensure employees meet regulatory qualifications and Commission policies, rather than confirming standing on a particular list.
Removes proclamation condition tied to availability of alternatives
The bill repeals subsections that made the commencement of earlier sections contingent on a ministerial report that alternative borrowing options were available and utilized. Removing those subsections eliminates that statutory gate — a structural change to how and when parts of the Act take effect (it removes the statutory condition for proclamation).
Housekeeping, departmental list updates and cross‑reference fixes
Across the Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, Municipal Government Act, Employment Standards Code and others the bill updates departmental names on coordinating councils, corrects cross‑references, fixes typographical errors (for example, replacing “art” with “Part”), and repeals obsolete provisions or schedules. These amendments are primarily technical but collectively reduce friction and ambiguity in statutory language.
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Explore this topic in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Payday loan borrowers — the statutory cap on total cost is reduced (15% → 14%) and the advertised maximum drops from $15 to $14 per $100, which directly lowers allowable consumer charges for covered payday loans.
- Users of wills, powers of attorney and personal directives — removing the statutory time limitation on electronic deemed‑presence expands the legal footing for remote witnessing and could improve access for geographically dispersed or mobility‑limited individuals.
- The provincial government and ministries — replacing fixed Schedules with regulation‑based lists and centralizing mark‑up authority gives the executive faster, more flexible levers to add/remove regulatory bodies and set pricing policies without primary‑law amendments.
- Regulatory and licensing administrators — statutory tidy‑ups and clarified cross‑references reduce ambiguity in day‑to‑day administration and may streamline compliance processes.
Who Bears the Cost
- Payday lenders — the lower permissible cap reduces revenue per loan and may require systems, contract and disclosure updates before the January 1, 2025 effective date.
- Professionally regulated bodies previously listed in statutory Schedules — they lose the protective visibility of being named in primary legislation and face potential exposure to regulatory reclassification or removal by regulation.
- Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission (AGLC) and licensees — the Commission must implement ministerially set prices and mark‑ups, which centralizes pricing risk and could constrain the Commission’s operational discretion; licensees face uncertainty until mark‑ups are published.
- Legal and fiduciary advisers — broader permanent availability of electronic witnessing shifts professional‑practice risk and will require updated processes, compliance checks and possibly new liability management approaches.
- Government policy teams and regulators — drafting and consulting on replacement regulations for lists and operational details creates near‑term administrative work and resource needs.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central tension is between flexibility and accountability: Bill 36 shifts operational decisions out of primary law into ministerial direction and regulations to gain speed and administrative flexibility, but in so doing it reduces legislative scrutiny and statutory stability — a trade‑off that makes life easier for policymakers in the short term but creates uncertainty and potential risk for regulated parties and consumers.
The bill stitches together policy moves and technical fixes that interact in notable ways. Lowering the payday‑loan cap is a clear consumer‑protection measure, but it sits alongside the repeal of the proclamation trigger in the Act to End Predatory Lending; together those changes alter both the immediate regulatory ceiling and the mechanism for phased implementation of complementary measures.
Regulators and policy teams will need to coordinate: a lower cap without concurrent, accessible alternatives could shift demand into unregulated channels.
Moving regulatory‑body lists from statute into regulation improves administrative agility but reduces parliamentary visibility and the friction that protects regulated entities from rapid reclassification. That trade‑off matters for members of the professions who rely on statutory recognition for status, mobility or access to certain regulatory regimes.
Centralizing mark‑up authority for liquor and cannabis with the Minister shifts pricing levers to explicit political control; the Commission loses some pricing autonomy, licensees gain less predictability, and stakeholder consultations over mark‑ups will govern practical effects.
Finally, removing the statutory time‑limits on electronic witnessing increases access but raises integrity questions. The bill strips the temporal statutory constraint and, in some cases, the related regulation‑making power; without clear implementing regulations or administrative safeguards, courts and practitioners will need to grapple with evidentiary, fraud‑prevention and validity issues in remote execution scenarios.
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