Defence Production Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. D-1)

Marginal note:Minister may require returns to be made

• 13 (1) The Minister may, by notice in writing, require any person referred to in subsection (2) to make periodical or other returns, at such times and containing such particulars as may be specified in the notice, with respect to defence supplies produced, dealt in or controlled by the person or that the person holds, has contracted for or contemplates acquiring, and the sources of supply thereof, and with respect to the facilities or accommodation that the person has available for or that are adaptable to the production or storage of defence supplies or the construction of defence projects.

• Marginal note:Persons who are to make returns

  (2) The Minister may require the returns referred to in subsection (1) to be made by any person who

  • (a) produces, deals in or has control of defence supplies or constructing defence projects; or

  • (b) carries on a business or possesses accommodation or facilities that, in the opinion of the Minister, is or are suitable for or can be adapted to producing, dealing in or storing defence supplies or constructing defence projects.

Marginal note:Other departments to assist Minister in obtaining information

14 Where a Government department has, under or pursuant to any Act, power to obtain, for any purpose, information as to matters with respect to which the Minister is empowered to require returns to be made, that department shall, if so required by the Minister, exercise that power for the purpose of assisting the Minister in obtaining any such information.

Marginal note:Stock-piling

15 The Minister may, on behalf of Her Majesty and subject to this Act, acquire, store, maintain, transport, sell, exchange or otherwise dispose of such materials or substances as may be designated by the Governor in Council as materials or substances essential to the needs of the community of which it is advisable to maintain stocks in order to safeguard against possible shortages thereof.

Defence Procurement

Marginal note:Ministerial powers of procurement and disposal

16 The Minister may, on behalf of Her Majesty and subject to this Act,

• (a) buy or otherwise acquire, utilize, store, transport, sell, exchange or otherwise dispose of defence supplies;

• (b) manufacture or otherwise produce, finish, assemble, process, develop, repair, maintain or service defence supplies or manage and operate facilities therefor;

• (c) construct or acquire defence projects and sell, exchange or otherwise dispose of them;

• (d) arrange for the performance of professional or commercial services;

• (e) purchase or otherwise acquire, sell, exchange or otherwise dispose of real or personal property or any interest in real or personal property, or an immovable or a movable or any right in an immovable or a movable, that, in the opinion of the Minister, is or is likely to be necessary or desirable for any of the purposes mentioned in paragraph (a), (b) or (c);

• (f) make loans or advances to or guarantee repayment of loans or advances made to a person

  • (i) for the purpose of providing assistance for the construction, acquisition, extension or improvement of capital equipment or works by, or to provide working capital for, that person for the manufacture, production, finishing, assembling, processing, development, storage, transportation, repairing, maintenance or servicing of defence supplies or for the construction or operation of defence projects, or

  • (ii) by way of advance payment on account of or to enable that person to carry out any contract entered into with the Minister under this Act or any defence contract; and

• (g) do all such things as appear to the Minister to be incidental to or necessary or expedient for the matters referred to in the foregoing provisions of this section or as may be authorized by the Governor in Council with respect to the procurement, construction or disposal of defence supplies or defence projects.

Marginal note:Expenditures from C.R.F.

17 There may be expended from the Consolidated Revenue Fund amounts for the following purposes:

• (a) to pay the cost of acquisition, storage, maintenance or transportation of stocks of materials or substances purchased pursuant to section 15, or stocks of defence supplies acquired under section 16, that the Minister deems it is advisable to maintain; and

• (b) to pay the cost of acquisition, storage or maintenance of defence supplies requisitioned for payment out of an appropriation or by an agent of Her Majesty or to be paid for by an associated government, such amounts if paid to be recovered from the appropriation or from the agent or associated government.

Marginal note:Expenditures from C.R.F.

• 18 (1) There may be paid from the Consolidated Revenue Fund amounts for loans or advances authorized under this Act for any purpose other than to assist in the construction, acquisition, extension or improvement of capital equipment or works by any person.

• Marginal note:Defence Production Loan Account

  (2) There shall be established in the accounts of Canada, for the purposes of this section, an account to be known as the Defence Production Loan Account and to which shall be charged all moneys to be paid pursuant to subsection (1).

Marginal note:Limitation on amount expended from C.R.F.

• 19 (1) The aggregate of expenditures made pursuant to section 17 and subsection 18(1) shall not at any time exceed by more than one hundred million dollars the aggregate of amounts

  • (a) received by the Receiver General from the disposition by the Minister of materials, substances or defence supplies referred to in paragraph 17(a);

  • (b) charged to another appropriation in respect of costs referred to in paragraph 17(a), where the materials, substances or defence supplies may be acquired under that appropriation;

  • (c) charged to an appropriation or paid by an agent of Her Majesty or by an associated government to pay costs incurred in respect of defence supplies payment for which was made out of the Fund under paragraph 17(b); and

  • (d) received in repayment of a loan or advance referred to in subsection 18(1).

• Marginal note:No credit of loss against expenditure without appropriation

  (2) No loss sustained in respect of the acquisition and subsequent disposition of any defence supplies or on account of any loan or advance or otherwise may be credited against any expenditure made pursuant to section 17 or subsection 18(1), except pursuant to an appropriation by Parliament for that purpose.

Marginal note:Title to government issue or building

20 If, by the terms of a defence contract, it is provided that title to any government issue or building furnished or made available to a person or obtained or constructed by the person with money provided by Her Majesty or an agent of Her Majesty or an associated government remains vested or vests in Her Majesty or in an associated government free and clear of all claims, liens, prior claims or rights of retention within the meaning of the Civil Code of Québec or any other statute of the Province of Quebec, charges or encumbrances, then, despite any law in force in any province,

• (a) the title to the government issue or building remains vested or vests in accordance with the terms of the contract free and clear of all claims, liens, prior claims or rights of retention within the meaning of the Civil Code of Québec or any other statute of the Province of Quebec, charges or encumbrances; and

• (b) subject to any provisions in the contract, Her Majesty or the associated government in whom the title is vested is entitled at any time to remove, sell or dispose of the government issue or building.

Marginal note:Premature rescission, resolution or termination of contract

21 No person is entitled to damages, compensation or other allowance for loss of profit, direct or indirect, arising out of the rescission, resolution or termination of a defence contract at any time before it is fully performed if it is rescinded, resolved or terminated under a power contained in the contract or under a power conferred by or under an Act of Parliament.

Marginal note:Relief from claims and proceedings for royalties

• 22 (1) The Minister may, on behalf of Her Majesty, contract with any person that Her Majesty will relieve that person from any claims, actions or proceedings for the payment of royalties for the use or infringement of any patent, certificate of supplementary protection, registered industrial design or registered topography by that person in, or for the furnishing of any engineering or technical assistance or services to that person for, the performance of a defence contract.

• Marginal note:Relief from royalty payments

  (2) A person with whom the Minister has contracted under subsection (1) is not liable to pay royalties under any contract, statute or otherwise by reason of the use or infringement of a patent, certificate of supplementary protection, registered industrial design or registered topography in, or in respect of engineering or technical assistance or services furnished for, the performance of a defence contract and to which the contract under subsection (1) applies.

• Marginal note:Compensation for use

  (3) A person who, but for subsection (2), would be entitled to a royalty from another person for the infringement or use of a patent, certificate of supplementary protection, registered industrial design or registered topography or in respect of engineering or technical assistance or services is entitled to reasonable compensation from Her Majesty for the infringement, use or services and, if the Minister and that person cannot agree as to the amount of the compensation, it shall be fixed by the Commissioner of Patents.

• Marginal note:Appeal

  (4) Any decision of the Commissioner of Patents under subsection (3) is subject to appeal to the Federal Court under the Patent Act.

• Marginal note:Definitions

  (5) In this section, certificate of supplementary protection has the same meaning as in section 2 of the Patent Act and registered topography has the same meaning as in subsection 2(1) of the Integrated Circuit Topography Act.

Marginal note:Accounts records and documents of contractor

23 A person who has entered into a defence contract shall

• (a) keep detailed accounts and records of the cost of carrying out the contract and retain those accounts and records until the expiration of six years after the end of the calendar year in which the contract is terminated or completed; and

• (b) on demand, produce to any person thereunto authorized by the Minister every account, record or document of any description with respect to the contract and with respect to his other business that may be required by the person so authorized and permit him to examine, audit and take copies of and extracts from the accounts, records or documents.

Marginal note:Re-assessment of costs and profits

• 24 (1) Where the Minister is satisfied, either before or after the performance, in whole or in part, of a defence contract, that the total amount paid or payable thereunder to any person is in excess of the fair and reasonable cost of performing the contract together with a fair and reasonable profit, the Minister may

  • (a) by order, reduce the amount that the person is entitled to retain or receive thereunder to such amount as the Minister may fix as the fair and reasonable cost of performing the contract together with a fair and reasonable profit thereon; and

  • (b) direct the person to pay to the Receiver General forthwith any amount that the person has received under the contract in excess of the amount so fixed.

• Marginal note:Where person a party to two or more contracts

  (2) Where a person is a party to two or more defence contracts, the Minister may,

  • (a) by one order, reduce the total amount that the person is entitled to retain or receive under any two or more or all of the contracts to such amount as the Minister may fix as the fair and reasonable cost of performing the contracts together with a fair and reasonable profit thereon, or

  • (b) by order, fix the amount that the person is entitled to retain or receive in respect of defence contracts, during such period as may be designated by the Minister, as the fair and reasonable cost of performing the contracts together with a fair and reasonable profit thereon during that period,

  and the Minister may direct the person to pay to the Receiver General forthwith any amount that the person has received under the contracts or in respect of defence contracts during that period in excess of the amount so fixed in respect thereof.

• Marginal note:Contractor carrying on other business

  (3) In determining a person’s fair and reasonable cost of performing defence contracts, or the fair and reasonable profit thereon, during any period, the Minister may, if during that period the person has carried on business other than the performance of defence contracts, determine for the purposes of this section such share or part of the gross income of, or the cost incurred by, the person during that period as is to be regarded as being attributable to that other business.

• Marginal note:Minister not limited or bound by contractor’s accounts or records

  (4) Where the Minister is satisfied that the accounts or records kept by a person with respect to the performance of a defence contract, or of defence contracts during any period referred to in paragraph (2)(b) or subsection (3), are insufficient to enable the cost of performance of the contract or contracts to be determined or that the cost as shown by the accounts or records is not fair and reasonable, the Minister is not limited or bound by the accounts or records in fixing the fair and reasonable cost of performance of the contract or contracts.

• Marginal note:Recovery of repayments directed by Minister

  (5) An amount payable to the Receiver General pursuant to a direction of the Minister under this section is recoverable in the Federal Court or any other court of competent jurisdiction, with full costs of suit, as a debt due to Her Majesty.