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Overview

Bill S-246 would establish a process for recognizing Canadian Armed Forces service as wartime service. It focuses on symbolic and commemorative recognition; designation would not itself create entitlement to any new financial benefit.

The supplied text says the bill was passed by the Senate on June 4, 2026. It would come into force the day after royal assent.

National framework

• The Minister of National Defence must develop a framework with objective designation criteria and recognition measures for members and veterans. It must also include measures recognizing non-Canadian Armed Forces personnel who served alongside or supported an operation.
• Criteria must consider service conditions, including risk, operational intensity and duration, potential physical or psychological injury, and armed conflict in the location of service, whether or not war was declared. They cannot consider the formal label given to the service at the time.
• The Minister must consult the Minister of Veterans Affairs, veterans and their advocates, relevant non-Forces personnel or their advocates, and experts.

Designations and public list

• On the Minister’s recommendation, the Governor in Council must designate qualifying service by order. A recommendation may cover all or part of an operation.
• Within 180 days after the framework is tabled, the Minister must review operations conducted from July 27, 1953, to the tabling date and recommend designation where service meets the criteria. The Governor in Council must make the order in accordance with the recommendation.
• After the framework is tabled, new operations or material changes to ongoing operations must be evaluated within one year.
• A designation may take effect before or after the order, but not before July 27, 1953. An order may also set an end date.
• Recommendations must be published when made, with a brief explanation of how the criteria were applied—even if they are a Privy Council confidence. Orders must be tabled in Parliament and are not statutory instruments under the Statutory Instruments Act.
• The Minister must create a searchable public list of operations within 180 days after the framework is tabled. It must include assessments and reasons, and applicable recommendations. The list must be updated within 60 days of a new operation or material change and within 10 days after a designation order is tabled.

Reports and existing law

• Within one year of the Act coming into force, the Minister must prepare a report setting out the framework and consultation results, table it in both Houses and publish it.
• A further report is required within five years after the framework is tabled, and every 10 years thereafter, covering implementation, effectiveness, unimplemented measures and the criteria. Criteria may be added or removed after consultation.
• The bill creates a new recognition and designation process. It expressly states that designation does not entitle a member or veteran to a financial benefit they are not already entitled to under an Act of Parliament. The supplied text specifies no cost estimate.