What Are Canada's Rules for AI Outbound Calls: DNCL, ADAD and CASL?

Short answer: you are responsible for three checks. The CRTC's Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules cover the National Do Not Call List (DNCL), telemarketing conduct and automatic dialing-announcing devices (ADAD); Canada's anti-spam law, CASL, covers commercial text and instant messages. We could not verify how an AI voice agent is classified under the ADAD rules, so plan on the stricter view. The product does not screen numbers against the DNCL or collect consent for you. Answering your own inbound calls is a different matter and much simpler.

What are the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules?

According to the CRTC's material as summarised in search results on 25 October 2026 (the CRTC's own pages blocked automated reading), the Rules include the National DNCL Rules, the Telemarketing Rules and the ADAD Rules, and have been in force since 30 September 2008. The DNCL site, which we did read, states that organisations that conduct telemarketing, directly or through a third party, must register, and that even if the calls are exempt you must still register. Check the current text; it can change.

Which calls are exempt from the DNCL?

The National DNCL site (read 25 October 2026) lists these exemptions from the DNCL rules:

• registered charities, political parties and candidates, survey callers, and newspapers soliciting subscriptions;
• people with an existing business relationship: a product or service bought, leased or rented in the last 18 months; a written contract in effect or expired within the last 18 months; or an inquiry or application about a product or service within the last six months;
• people who gave express consent, by a written, electronic or online form or a recorded verbal permission;
• calls to businesses, which the National DNCL Rules do not apply to.

This is why a lead who filled in your web form last week is a very different case from a list you bought.

What are the calling hours?

Recent CRTC enforcement notices (2026) cite the hours for telemarketing as 9:00 to 21:30 on weekdays and 10:00 to 18:00 on weekends, on the clock of the consumer receiving the call. A 2008 CRTC announcement noted that provincial rules can set different hours. The platform sets no calling window of its own: you set hours per campaign on the called person's clock, and they must fit the law. With several time zones in Canada, check the time at the recipient's end.

What about automatic dialing devices?

The DNCL site says the ADAD Rules also contain provisions that apply to calls that are not telemarketing, so appointment reminders and public-service announcements may still need to follow them. A search of CRTC material reports that telemarketing by ADAD is permitted only with the recipient's express consent, and that in 2014 the CRTC declined to allow ADAD calls on the basis of an existing business relationship. We could not open those documents directly. Whether an AI voice agent that holds a conversation counts as an ADAD is something we could not verify. Our advice is to plan on the stricter view: consent first, whatever the exemptions say, and take advice.

What does CASL add for text and WhatsApp?

The Justice Laws website (read 25 October 2026) states that section 6(1) of CASL prohibits sending a commercial electronic message to an electronic address unless the recipient has consented, expressly or impliedly, and the message complies with the identification and unsubscribe rules in section 6(2). An electronic address includes an email account, an instant messaging account and a telephone account. Section 20(4) sets the maximum penalty for a violation at 1,000,000 dollars for an individual and 10,000,000 dollars for anyone else. The Electronic Commerce Protection Regulations (SOR/2013-221) exclude some messages, among them messages sent in response to a request, inquiry or complaint (section 3(b)). Whether a WhatsApp template counts as a commercial electronic message is a question for your adviser; plan as if it does.

How should I set up a campaign?

1. Start with people who asked: a web-form lead, an enquiry, a customer who bought recently. Keep a record of when and how.
2. Register with the National DNCL where the rules require it, and check numbers against the list before dialing, using the DNCL's own tools.
3. Write an honest opening line: who is calling, from which business, why, and an offer to stop.
4. Put anyone who says no on your do-not-contact list so the campaign never dials that number again.
5. Set hours on the called person's clock, inside the CRTC's hours and any provincial rule.
6. Read the transcripts of the first fifty calls.

The product gives you tools: the do-not-contact list you keep, per-campaign calling hours, an opening line you write, and a transcript and outcome for every call. Read the official text; this is not legal advice. See the Canada page, the AI receptionist page, voice campaigns and AI receptionists for Canadian small businesses.