Federal Statutes in Canada

Finding A Federal Statute

The Revised Statutes of Canada (R.S.C. 1985) is the most recent federal consolidation of the federal statutes. It came into force on December 12, 1988. It employs an alphanumeric system for arranging and referring to the statutes. The first letter of the first word in the act’s short title that relates to the subject matter of the statute is used, along with a number to distinguish the act from other acts assigned the same letter. The English title of the act is used to determine its citation. The act is cited the same in French and in English.

The R.S.C. 1985 is comprised of the following volumes:

1. Volumes 1-8 , containing statutes A-1 to Y4, consolidating statutes up to 31 Dec. 1984.
2. Five supplements containing enactments and amendments passed in 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988 as well as the consolidated Income Tax Act , and the History and Disposition of Acts.
3. A series of appendices that contain the acts or portions thereof which were repealed by the revision, as well as constitutional acts and documents and the Canadian Bill of Rights .
4. An integrated subject matter index referred to as the English Index (2nd ed.). Subject headings indicate the subject matter of the sections and are not necessarily derived from the terminology used in the acts. It does not contain indexes to individual acts.
5. Table of Concordance , which indicates the changes in the chapter numbers of the new revised statutes. If you know the original chapter number of an existing statute, you can check this table to find out the new chapter number in the revised statute volumes.

The following tells you how to find a federal statute, given certain information:

Given the citation of the statute

Locate the set of statutes in the library and select the required volume. In many cases, a citation will be to the R.S.C., which may be several amendments out of date. To ensure that you have the statute in its current form, follow the “Updating Procedure” outlined below.

Given the title of the statute

Refer to the “Table of Public Statutes” in the orange coloured pages of the latest annual volume of theStatutes of Canada . The statutes are arranged alphabetically. The locator information ( i.e ., R.S.C./S.C. and year, and chapter number) is indicated next to the title of the statute. You will also note that immediately beneath the title of each act is the equivalent title, printed in italics, of the act in the other official language.

Underneath each statute title is a list of references in bold face indicating the provisions of the act that have been amended or added. To determine if an amendment is in force , refer to the C.I.F. entries for each amendment at the end of the list of amendments to an act. C.I.F. stands for coming into force, and the entry, therefore, lets you know when the amendment has come or will come into force.

Look up the relevant statute in the Revised Statutes of Canada under the chapter number indicated in the “Table of Public Statutes.” Scan the Act to determine if any of the relevant sections have been amended according to the Table of Public Statutes. If so, follow the updating procedure described further below.

Given the subject matter only

Consult the English Index (2d) of the Revised Statutes of Canada .

Scan the bold print headings for the relevant topic. Under each general subject heading are sub-headings with the chapter and section number under which that issue can be found in the R.S.C. 1985.
If you found the act in the index, but can’t find the chapter in the volumes , the statute referred to in the index was passed subsequent to December 1984. To find the correct citation:

Turn to the Table of Concordance of Chapters in the Index . You will find that the chapter number corresponds to a chapter in one of the supplements (e.g., C-15.3 Canadian Environmental Protection Act corresponds to chapter 16 in the 4th supplement, which covers legislation enacted in 1988)

OR

Look for you Act in the Table of Public statutes in the orange pages in the back of the annual volumes of the Statutes of Canada , or consult the Table of Public Statutes: Table of Acts and Responsible Ministers . Look up your act.

Updating Federal Statutes

There are two methods of updating statutes-using official sources and using commercial sources. The official method involves using the “Table of Public Statutes” and the Status of Bills (kept on reserve). The commercial method involves using the Canada Statute Citator , R.S.C. 1985.

Table of Public Statutes

If you elect to use the “Table of Public Statutes,” check this table in the latest bound volume of theStatutes of Canada or in the Canada Gazette, Part III . Statutes are listed by short title. This cumulative table will refer to amendments of statutes in RS.C. 1985, new statutes since 1985, and repeals of any statutes since R.S.C. 1985.

New Legislation

The final step in updating a statute is to check for pending legislation and status of new bills that may affect it. Consult each volume of Canadian Current Law Legislation (Dig./Can./A2/A42 LAW) published since the Citator was last updated.

The full-text of all bills introduced during a current session of the parliament can also be accessed at the Canadian Parliamentary web site. The Senate and the House of Common bills are listed by bill number and indicate their current status ( i.e ., first reading, second reading, etc.). If the bill has passed third reading, a date of royal assent is also included.

Law is our Passion

This entry about Federal Statutes has been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC BY 3.0) licence, which permits unrestricted use and reproduction, provided the author or authors of the Federal Statutes entry and the Encyclopedia of Law are in each case credited as the source of the Federal Statutes entry. Please note this CC BY licence applies to some textual content of Federal Statutes, and that some images and other textual or non-textual elements may be covered by special copyright arrangements. For guidance on citing Federal Statutes (giving attribution as required by the CC BY licence), please see below our recommendation of "Cite this Entry".

• APA
• MLA
• MLA 7
• CHICAGO
• OSCOLA

Usage Metrics

132 Views

Google Scholar: Search for Federal Statutes Related Content

 

Schema Summary

This entry was last updated: April 22, 2016