Canada will not enact new nationwide driving rules in July 2025

Social media users claimed that Canada would be implementing a new federal law in July, which would supposedly update several transportation rules. This is false; no changes to driving laws were introduced in Parliament and while one territory will increase traffic fines, federal and provincial transportation authorities said no further regulations were coming.

"Starting July 5,2025, big changes are coming to Canada's roads. The federal government will introduce the New Canada Driving Law 2025," claims a June 17, 2025 Facebook post.

The text purports Canada is about to enforce a country-wide 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) per hour speed limit in all school zones, coming with a violation fine of Can$500 ($366).

Numerous other posts spread across Facebook claiming the country would be lowering the blood alcohol limit for impaired driving violations, requiring mandatory installation of advanced driver-assistance systems and forcing seniors to submit to driving evaluations.

The text in many posts appeared to be copy-and-pasted, while some publications linked to articles repeating similar claims on websites with domains indicating activity outside of Canada.

The posts gained traction as the Liberal government faces mounting pressure to adjust a ban on new gas-powered vehicle sales scheduled to go into effect in 2026. Other false claims about Prime Minister Mark Carney and new Canadian auto regulations were recently fact-checked by AFP.

However, searching the Canadian parliament's inventory of introduced bills for the current session did not yield any legislation about cars, transportation or roads matching rules described in the posts (archived here, here and here).

Transport Canada, the federal agency regulating transportation, also told AFP it did not have any new motor vehicle rule changes coming into effect in July 2025.

"It's important to note that provinces and territories are responsible for areas such as driver licensing, vehicle registration, vehicle maintenance, insurance and enforcement of road rules," said Hicham Ayoun, a spokesman for Transport Canada in a June 19 email.

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation told AFP it was not introducing any new rules such as the ones seen in the posts.

"At this time there are no changes to Ontario's distracted driving law, school zones or automated vehicle oversight," said ministry spokeswoman Tanya Blazina in a June 26 email.

AFP also confirmed with the province of British Columbia that the driving regulations seen in the misleading social media posts would not be coming to its jurisdiction.

Searching the websites of regulations in certain provinces does not reveal any evidence of similar rules being introduced in those regions of the country (archived here, here and here)

A Traffic Safety Act will go into effect on July 1 in Yukon territory to increase fines for some violations including failing to stop for school busses (archived here).

Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.