Ontario Regulations

Ontario regulations are governed by the Regulations Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. R.21. This act defines what constitutes subordinate legislation as well as stipulating that there must be statutory authorization for every regulation in the form of an enabling statute.

Research of Ontario Regulations

How To Find An Ontario Regulation in Print

1. Consult the Table of Regulations for a Citation (Official Method)

• The “Table of Regulations” is a cumulative listing of regulations and amendments found at the end of each annual volume of the Statutes of Ontario.
• The Statutes of Ontario are the red books shelved in the stacks on the main floor towards the back of the library. These are arranged by year and volume number. Consult the most recent volume available.
• The “Table of Regulations” alphabetically lists the titles of enabling legislation.
  Under each statute is a list of regulations made under that act complete with citations and amendments.

2. Locate the Regulation

• The citation tells us that the Continuing Education Regulation is found in the Revised Regulations of Ontario 1990 under Regulation 285.
• The Revised Regulations of Ontario are blue volumes.
• The range of regulation numbers is indicated on the spine of each volume.

3. Update Through the Ontario Regulations Service

• The Ontario Regulations Service is a very useful reference tool. It can be used in lieu of the Table of Regulations to locate a citation. As well, this service contains very recent information as it is current to within the last month.
• This tool reprints the regulations portion of the Ontario Gazette so that one can look up a cited amendment or regulation directly in that volume without having to find an actual copy of the Gazette itself.
• The Ontario Regulations Service is comprised of several volumes and these are the blue binders shelved in Reference area.

See Also:

• The Cumulative Consolidated Index – The Green Pages: The green section found at the front of each volume is an annual consolidated index which lists all regulations in force until the end of that calendar year.
• The Current Year’s Index – The Yellow Pages: The yellow section found in the most recent volume is an index of recent amendments and regulations which is current to within the last month.

4. Final Update: Check The Most Recent Issues of The Ontario Gazette

• In order to be absolutely current, you must update from the latest cutoff point in your information by searching through recent issues of the Ontario Gazette.
• The Gazette issues are shelved with the Ontario legislative materials. These are weekly issues which contain a list of publications under the Regulations Act.
• To update, refer to the index at the back of each issue and search for any recently issued regulations by enabling statute title.

Finding Ontario Regulations Using Quicklaw

The Ontario Regulations database is very good for finding regulation names and numbers It works in the same way as the Canadian Regulations. Similarly, there are two main methods for searching this database: one may browse through lists of act and regulation titles to find legislation or one may perform a specific search through these titles. Both methods are effective.

It is also possible to search this database for the occurrence of specific terms. To run such a search select unique words from your topic.

Browse Alphabetical Lists of Act Titles

• Locate the database, Ontario Regulations.
• Choose the “Browse” link beside the database title.
• Click the “+” beside the Education Act.
• Under the Education Act, you will find a list of regulations passed under the authority of that statute. Browse down until you reach the regulation entitled, Collection of Personal Information.
• To view the text of the regulation, click on its title.
• Search by Enabling Statute Title

Search by Regulation Number

• This is very useful when you only have the citation and do not know under which statute the regulation was issued.
• Select a database like All Canadian Statutes or Ontario Statutes
• Type in “O. Reg. 521/01” in the citation field
• Quicklaw will retrieve the text of that regulation.

Note: Quicklaw’s regulations databases does not include repealed regulations. If you are looking for a regulation no longer in effect, you might have to use paper or a “repealed regulation” database.

The Internet and Ontario Regulations

The government of Ontario’s legislative website, E-Laws, contains a number of tools for researching legislation, including a database of Acts with their associated regulations, annual consolidations of regulations, and repealed regulations.

Ontario Regulations

In the same way that regulations made under federal statutes are published in Part II of the Canada Gazette , regulations made under the authority of provincial statutes are published in the official Gazettes of the provinces. The mode of publication varies among the provinces, with most (Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, P.E.I., Quebec, and Saskatchewan) following the federal format of using a separate part of the Gazette for regulations. Manitoba publishes its regulations on pages that are part of the Manitoba Gazette , but are numbered separately. Ontario regulations are printed at the back of each issue of the Ontario Gazette . The remainder of this section on provincial regulations is limited to a discussion of Ontario regulations.

Ontario publishes annual volumes of new regulations, Ontario Regulations , cited O. Reg. These are re-prints of the Ontario Gazette in which the regulations first appeared. Each year’s volumes contain a Table of Regulations which lists alphabetically, under the appropriate enabling Act, all regulations in force at the time of publication. The Table shows whether the regulation was published in the last consolidation of regulations or whether it appeared in a later year.

O. Reg. 621/92 refers to the six hundred and twenty-first regulation made in 1992. Since regulations are published consecutively, it can easily be located in O. Reg. 1992.

Every ten years all regulations and their amendments are consolidated and published in the Revised Regulations of Ontario , cited R.R.O. The most recent consolidation is the R.R.O. 1990, which includes all regulations made before January 1, 1991. There are also three supplementary volumes to the R.R.O. 1990 that contain regulations made after December 31, 1990 and before the Revised Regulations were proclaimed to be in force (November 16, 1992). These supplements may contain entirely new regulations, amend existing ones, or they may revoke those previously in force.

It should be noted that in some cases long schedules and legal descriptions in the original regulations have been left out of the R.R.O. and its supplements. However, these are clearly cross-referenced to the appropriate volume of the Ontario Gazette.

In the Revised Regulations of Ontario , the regulations are ordered alphabetically under their enabling acts. Each volume includes a Table of Contents for the complete revision, a copy of which is also published at the end of each sessional volume of the Statutes of Ontario .

An Ontario regulation comes into effect on the day it is filed, which is noted beneath the title of the regulation.

Locating Ontario Regulations

Given the title of the enabling Act:

• Consult the Table of Regulations found at the end of the Third Supplement of the R.R.O. 1990. This table is the best and most up-to-date, and lists all of the regulations contained in the R.R.O. 1990. It also includes all regulations made on or after January 1, 1991 and before November 16, 1992, including any amendments or revocations made in that period.
• Or consult the Table of Regulations in the front of any volume of the R.R.O.. Look under the title of the act under which the regulation was made. This table will direct you to the appropriate R.R.O. 1990 volume.

From this point on, there are two methods:

• Method 1: Statutes of Ontario/ Ontario Gazette
• Method 2: Carswell’s Ontario Regulations Service

Method 1: Statutes of Ontario/ Ontario Gazette:

• Consult the “Table of Regulations” at the end of the latest volume of the Statutes of Ontario.
• Find the enabling act of the regulation and check whether there have been any amendments. Go to the regulation indicated.
• Or consult the “Table of Regulations,” a semi-annual softcover index of new regulations and amendments published by the Ontario Gazette . Find the enabling act of the regulation and check if there have been any amendments. Go to the regulation indicated.
• Check the indexes of all the soft-cover Ontario Gazettes that have been published since the Table was compiled. Look under the heading, “Publications Under the Regulation Act” to see if your act is listed. If so, check the amendments listed in that issue.

Method 2: Carswell’s Ontario Regulations Service:

• Consult the Ontario Regulations Service, Annual Consolidated Index , which is found in the last volume of each year, printed on green pages. (If there are no green pages in the most recent year, look to the preceding year.)
• This index will list all amendments made to the regulation from 1990 to the year the index was published.
• Consult the “Index Updates” located on yellow pages at the back of the most recent volume of the Ontario Regulations Service . This index lists regulations enacted in the current year.
• Check the pink pages (if there are any), located in the most recent annual volume. This lists all of the regulations that have come into effect since the yellow pages were last updated.
• Check the indexes of all the soft-cover Ontario Gazettes that have been published since the yellow index or pink pages were last updated. Look under the heading “Publications Under the Regulation Act” to see if the relevant act is listed. If it is, look up the new regulation in the same Gazette issue.

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This entry about Ontario Regulations 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 Ontario Regulations entry and the Encyclopedia of Law are in each case credited as the source of the Ontario Regulations entry. Please note this CC BY licence applies to some textual content of Ontario Regulations, and that some images and other textual or non-textual elements may be covered by special copyright arrangements. For guidance on citing Ontario Regulations (giving attribution as required by the CC BY licence), please see below our recommendation of "Cite this Entry".

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This entry was last updated: April 22, 2016