A STATUTE is a piece of legislation passed by federal or provincial legislatures and then given Royal Assent. Statutes begin as bills in federal or provincial legislatures where they are given three readings before they are passed into legislation. Not all bills become statutes.
A REGULATION is a companion to a statute in that it outlines rules, procedures, forms, etc.. That are ancillary to the actual statute. Regulations are used to enforce, apply or administer the statute.
Statutes of Canada:
These are bound with beige covers. Check the blue index at the back of each volume.
Complete Statutes of Canada documents are available for download at the Department of Justice of Canada web site.
IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT REGARDING THE USE OF ONLINE RESOURCES
The legislative material on government websites has been "prepared for convenience of reference only and does not yet have official sanction". For all purposes of interpreting and applying the law, users should consult the traditionally published format ie..paper.
For example : If you;are researching Statutes of Canada the following should be consulted:
- Acts as Passed By Parliament as well as the official, published format in Part III of the Canadian Gazette found in the Woodroffe LRC or found in most Public libraries.
- The Regulations in Part II of the Canadian Gazette As well as the official published format in Part II of the Canadian Gazette found in the Woodroffe LRC or found in most Public libraries.
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RESEARCHING STATUTES OF CANADA
1b. Locate the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985
- This consolidates all the statutes passed or amended by Parliament since the last consolidation in 1970.
- The Revised Statutes of Canada (RSC), consists of 8 volumes, 5 supplements and 1 appendix.
2. To find a particular statute, use one of the following methods:
- Revised Statutes of Canada : English index will refer to the chapter in the RSC for the Act.
- Revised Statutes of Canada : Table of contents at the beginning of each volume of RSC lists the Act in the volume.
- Canada Statute Citator , RSC 1985
This will list the chapter in the RSC, but will also mention changes to the Act as well as court cases that have used a particular section of the statute.
3. To update a statute, or to verify that you have the most recent one, check:
- *Canada Gazette, Part III, Table of Public Statutes/ Table of Acts and Responsible Ministers . This index was made up of orange pages (English) and blue pages (French) until the end of 1993. It is now available in white pages, identical to the format of the rest of the Canada Gazette. There is a stripe of green tape on the spine to indicate that it is an index.
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Canada Gazette on the internet
* If you wish to access proposed legislation or recent legislative amendments and enactments, we suggest you review the Canada Gazette Online. The Internet version of the Canada Gazette begins in January 1998.
"Disclaimer : " The Canada Gazette, Online including the Quarterly Index is in .PDF format. You will need to download Acrobat Reader to access the .PDF documents.
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Find your Act in the Table of Public Statutes or the Table of Public Statutes online. The online version starts in 1907. Check to see if there have been changes to the Act since RSC 1985. New acts or major changes will be listed. Changes can be located in the Statutes of Canada or the Canada Gazette, Part III.
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Changes to a Statute of Canada can also be followed in the Revised Statutes of Canada 1985. Table of Concordance.
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REGULATIONS OF CANADA
To find a particular Regulation, use:
- Consolidated Regulations of Canada , (CRC) 1978, Table of Contents
Find the act you are interested in. The index will refer you to a number of chapters in the multi-volume CRC set.
- Canada Gazette, Part III . Consolidated Index of Statutory Instruments.
It lists all regulations still in force made since 1955.
Find the most recent edition of the index. Locate the Act by its title.The index will refer you to a number of regulations that can be found in the individual issues of the Canada Gazette Part III.
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ONTARIO STATUTES AND REGULATIONS
Both the Statutes and Regulations of Ontario are available on the Publications Ontario web site.
- First, second and third reading of bills, status of legislation, daily papers and other related proceedings introduced in the Ontario Legislature (find the Hansard here)
- E-LAWSa database which contains full text of Ontario's Legislation accessible on-line.
RESEARCHING ONTARIO STATUTES
Follow the same procedure as for the federal statutes, but use the Ontario Statutes, the Revised Statutes of Ontario and the Ontario Statute Citator.
Changes to Ontario Statutes can be followed in the Ontario Statutes Concordance 1970-1980 and the Ontario Statutes Concordance 1980-1990.
A current list of regulations can be found at the back of each Statutes of Ontario annual volume.
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EXCELLENT RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET
Statutes and Regulations can be found on the Department of Justice Canada's web site. This is an excellent government database that is searchable by Title, Subject, Repealed Acts and Non Statutory Regulations. Most frequently accessed Statutes are featured on the page for easy consultation.
Guides to Government Information from the Government of Canada's Depository Services web site.
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