Doctrine of Federal Paramountcy

Quebec (Attorney General) v. Canada (Human Resources and Social Development), 2011 SCC 60, released this morning, has a useful discussion of the Doctrine of Federal Paramountcy:

[17]                          In Quebec (Attorney General) v. Canadian Owners and Pilots Association, 2010 SCC 39, [2010] 2 S.C.R. 536, at para. 64, the Chief Justice stated that the doctrine of federal paramountcy is applicable to two forms of conflict:

                    The first is operational conflict between federal and provincial laws, where one enactment says "yes" and the other says "no", such that "compliance with one is defiance of the other": Multiple Access Ltd. v. McCutcheon, [1982] 2 S.C.R. 161, at p. 191, per Dickson J.  In Bank of Montreal v. Hall, [1990] 1 S.C.R. 121, at p. 155, La Forest J. identified a second branch of paramountcy, in which dual compliance is possible, but the provincial law is incompatible with the purpose of federal legislation: see also Law Society of British Columbia v. Mangat, 2001 SCC 67, [2001] 3 S.C.R. 113, at para. 72; Lafarge Canada, at para. 84.  Federal paramountcy may thus arise from either the impossibility of dual compliance or the frustration of a federal purpose:  [Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. v. Saskatchewan, 2005 SCC 13, [2005] 1 S.C.R. 188], at para. 14.