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Government Information: Canadian Federal Statutes: Updating Statutes

This guide will assist the user in researching Canadian federal statutes and will show the user how to research bills before parliament.

Process

A fuller explanation will be found on the Details page of this guide.

Updating a Public General Act involves two steps:

  1. Updating the Text
    Consolidations are usually "current to" a cutoff date expressed in terms of acts passed by Parliament. The Table of Public Statutes and Responsible Ministers and the Consolidated Acts are said to be current to a chapter in the Statutes of Canada. The Table and the consolidations will reflect any changes up to that point only. To update the text, the researcher needs to see if any acts have been passed and have come into force after the cutoff date.
  2. Updating the Status
    Once passed, Acts (or parts of Acts) may not be in force. The status of consolidations is also current to a cutoff date expressed in terms of issue of the Canada Gazette, part II (where SIs bringing Acts into force are published). To update the status of amendments to an Act, once the text is updated, the researcher must determine if any SIs have been issued subsequent to the publication of the cutoff issue of the Canada Gazette, part II. 
 

Updating Text

  1. Find the Consolidation on the Consolidated Acts section of the Dept. of Justice Laws website. 
  2. Determine the "cutoff" using the Table of Public Statutes and Responsible Ministers on the Dept. of Justice Laws website. It will be expressed in terms of a chapter in the Statutes of Canada. 
  3. See if any Acts are not included in the consolidation using the Annual Statutes section of the Dept. of Justice Laws website. 
  4. See if any Acts have been passed and have received royal assent very recently (and have not yet been put up on the Dept. of Justice laws website) using LEGISinfo.
  5. If any Acts are found in steps 3 or 4, search the text of the Act for a mention of the law being updated. 

Updating Status

  1. Find the Consolidation on the Consolidated Acts section of the Dept. of Justice Laws website. 
  2. Determine the "cutoff" using the Table of Public Statutes and Responsible Ministers on the Dept. of Justice Laws website. It will be expressed in terms of an issue of the Canada Gazette, part II.  
  3. Note what is not in force by looking at the CIF information found at the bottom of the consolidation. Do not forget to add any amendments not yet in the Consolidation 
  4. See if any issues of part II of the Canada Gazette have been published since the cutoff indicated in the Table by going to the Canada Gazette website. If there are, check the issues for SIs bringing into force the amending Acts. 
  5. Check to see if any SIs have been issued that have not yet been published using the Privy Council Office Order in Council database.