Please note: The following is a brief description of the types of documents found in the Brock University James A. Gibson Library collection. It only serves as a guide to Canadian parliamentary information. Please consult a reference librarian for help using materials in your depository library's collection. The call numbers quoted in this document are valid for the James A. Gibson Library collection at Brock University only.

Statutes, Bills and Regulations: A Guide

Prepared by Moira Russell, Documents Specialist
James A. Gibson Library, Brock University
October 1997

STATUTES AND BILLS

The official version of any statute is the print version in the latest Revised Statutes plus the annual volumes to date plus any amendments and additions passed since the last annual volume. Use the Statute Citator for the appropriate jurisdiction to correlate this information. Coloured pages in the front of the Citator volumes provide weekly updates for current legislation. Text of legislation cited in the updates is published as Bills. Federal bills are published at first and third readings. They are numbered within each session of Parliament as follows: House of Commons Bills - C2 to C200 are government bills, C201 to C1000 are private members' bills and C1001 and higher are private bills. Senate Bills are numbered with S preceding the number. Ontario Bills are published at first reading, when amended by committee and at third reading. Public (Government and Private Members') Bills are numbered consecutively within each annual session of the Legislative Assembly.

* Three statutes are excluded from coverage in the Canada Statute Citator. For the text of and updates to the Criminal Code use Martin's Annual Criminal Code (Brock University call number: DOC CA1 YX S72 no. 6), most recent volume updated by pocket parts in the back of the volume. The Income Tax Act is covered in the TaxPartner, available on selected Library Workstations. Updates and annotations to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are included in the Canadian Charter of Rights Annotated (Brock University call number: DOC CA7 CL 82 C11).

Other Formats:

Federal Statutes are available on CD ROM (Brock University call number: DOC CA1 YX S70) and also on the Internet: http://canada.justice.gc.ca/Loireg/index_en.html. This page includes links to the Consolidated Statutes, a Table of Public Statutes, annual statutes issued since the latest consolidation, and Constitutional Laws of Canada. There is also an experimental service which allows downloading of complete statutes. Use the Canada Statute Citator to update information found in both these formats.

House of Commons Bills are available at http://www.parl.gc.ca/cgi-bin/36/pb_gob.pl?e. This page provides reference to all bills currently on the Order Paper at the date given on the page. It includes first reading and amended versions of the bills. The page cautions that the printed version is the official version of the bill.

Ontario Statutes are available on CD ROM (Brock University call number: DOC CA2 ON LE S70) and also on the Internet: http://204.191.119.105/en/index.html. Use the Ontario Statute Citator to update information found in both these formats.

Ontario Bills are available at http://www.ontla.on.ca/Documents/documentsindex.htm This page provides links to the text of the First Reading of bills. Reference should always be made to the printed version for the final form of legislation.

Office Consolidations are individual statutes reproduced in separate chapters. Each has a warning notice that they are not to be considered official. The text, however is usually identical to the official version. They may, however, not be the current version of the Act. Always check these against the appropriate Citator. Not all statutes are available in this format.

Annotated versions of statutes are usually published by commercial companies and incorporate citations to court cases and commentary with the text of the legislation. The Library has a selection of these in different subject areas. Use SUBJECT and/or KeyWORD search in the Library Catalogue for specific titles and call numbers.

REGULATIONS

Regulations are instruments of legislative power made under the authority of an Act of Parliament or of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and have the force of law. They usually contain more specific guidelines and rules than are found in a statute.

The official version of regulations is the latest version of the consolidated or revised regulations for that jurisdiction plus the applicable Gazette. There is a table of regulations or index published with the Gazette which gives reference to the current form as of the date of the table.

* Use the table of regulations in the individual issues of the Gazette to update this index

* Use the table of regulations in the individual issues of the Gazette to update this table

Other Formats:

Federal Regulations are included with the statutes on CD ROM (Brock University call number: DOC CA1 YX S70) and on the Internet: http://canada.justice.gc.ca/Loireg/index_en.html. Use the Gazette to update information found in these formats.

Ontario Regulations are included with the statutes on CD ROM (Brock University call number: DOC CA2 ON LE S70) and on the Internet: http://204.191.119.105/en/index.html. Use the Gazette to update information found in these formats.

Both federal and provincial regulations are often included in Office Consolidations and annotations of the acts under whose authority they have been made.

FINDING AIDS

It is NOT recommended that you use the Library catalogue to look up Statutes and/or Regulations. The only statutes which have individual title entries in the catalogue are those for which the Library owns Office Consolidations or annotations. Not all statutes are available in these formats and title search could be misleading. These formats may also contain superseded or out-of-date versions of legislation. Many federal and Ontario statutes have the same or similar titles. A title search could lead to confusing acts from differing jurisdictions, despite the catalogue entry.

If you know the title and jurisdiction (federal or Ontario) of an act, use the appropriate Citator and statute volumes as outlined in this guide. If you do not know the jurisdiction or title use the Index to Federal and Ontario Statutes (Brock University call number: DOC CA1 YX S7121). Use the index or table of regulations in the appropriate Gazette to find regulations.

OTHER JURISDICTIONS

The Brock Library does not collect legislation from jurisdictions other than Ontario and the federal government and the Civil Code of Quebec (Brock University call number: DOC CA2 PQ NA 94 C51). Many provinces and countries make their statutes and regulations available on the Internet. ACJNet (Access to Justice Network) http://www.acjnet.org/acjeng.html provides reference to Canadian legislation on the web as well as other Canadian legal information. Law Crawler provides an index to sites of legislation from the United States as well as other countries http://www.lawcrawler.com/index.html

All of the web sites mentioned in this document are on the Library's "Legal Information Resources" Page http://www.BrockU.CA/library/research/politic/legal.htm