Minister’s removal of emission allowances and credits, shortfall
 18. (1) The Minister may only remove emission allowances and credits for a compliance period under subsection 14 (7) of the Act until such time as the Director issues an order under paragraph 1 of subsection 14 (8) of the Act. (2) Subject to subsection (3), the Minister’s authority to remove emission allowances and credits for a compliance period under paragraphs 1 and 3 of subsection 14 (7) of the Act may only be exercised by taking the following steps in respect of the participant’s cap and trade accounts in the order in which the steps are set out: 1. To satisfy the shortfall mentioned in paragraph 1 of subsection 14 (7) of the Act, the Minister shall remove offset credits, beginning with the credits that were issued first and continuing chronologically to the most recently issued credits until the earlier of the following: i. No more of those credits remain in the cap and trade accounts. ii. The amount of credits removed from the cap and trade accounts, both under section 16 of this Regulation and this section, represents 8 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions attributed to the participant for the compliance period. 2. To satisfy the shortfall mentioned in paragraph 1 of subsection 14 (7) of the Act, the Minister shall remove any early reduction credits until no more of those credits remain in the cap and trade accounts. 3. To satisfy the shortfall mentioned in paragraph 1 of subsection 14 (7) of the Act and to satisfy the amount mentioned in paragraph 3 of subsection 14 (7) of the Act, the Minister shall, i. remove any emission allowances that do not have a vintage year until no more of those emission allowances remain in the cap and trade accounts, and ii. if no emission allowances described in subparagraph i remain, remove any emission allowances that have a vintage year that is a year in the compliance period or an earlier year, beginning with the emission allowances with the earliest vintage year and continuing chronologically to the emission allowances with the most recent vintage year, until no more of those emission allowances remain in the cap and trade accounts. 4. To satisfy the shortfall mentioned in paragraph 1 of subsection 14 (7) of the Act and to satisfy the amount mentioned in paragraph 3 of subsection 14 (7) of the Act, the Minister shall remove any remaining emission allowances held in the participant’s compliance account, beginning with the emission allowances with the earliest vintage year and continuing chronologically to the emission allowances with later vintage years, until no more of those emission allowances remain in the compliance account. 5. To satisfy the shortfall mentioned in paragraph 1 of subsection 14 (7) of the Act and to satisfy the amount mentioned in paragraph 3 of subsection 14 (7) of the Act, the Minister shall remove any remaining emission allowances held in the participant’s holding account, beginning with the emission allowances with the earliest vintage year and continuing chronologically to the emission allowances with later vintage years, until no more of those emission allowances remain in the holding account. O. Reg. 144/16, s. 18 (2); O. Reg. 450/17, s. 8 (1-4). (3) If the participant purchases emission allowances at any time during the period during which the Minister is authorized to remove emission allowances and credits as described in subsection (1) and the Minister has already removed credits under paragraphs 1 and 2 of subsection (2), the Minister may remove those emission allowances in the order of the steps set out in paragraphs 3 to 5 of subsection (2). O. Reg. 144/16, s. 18 (3); O. Reg. 450/17, s. 8 (5). (4) The Minister shall retire from circulation all emission allowances and credits removed by the Minister under paragraph 1 of subsection 14 (7) of the Act. (5) Once the amount of emission allowances and credits retired from circulation under subsection (4) is the same as the amount of the shortfall, the Minister shall reserve all emission allowances removed by the Minister under paragraph 3 of subsection 14 (7) of the Act for the purpose of auctions.