Ontario Statutes

Locating an Ontario Statute

Provincial statutes are published in annual volumes and are later consolidated into revised volumes. The following material refers specifically to the Statutes of Ontario and may not be directly applicable to the organization of the statutes of other provinces.

The Statutes of Ontario , cited S.O., are the annual volumes of statutes enacted by the Ontario legislature. Each statute is a chapter, and chapter numbers are assigned consecutively as the new statutes are given royal assent. Although the Statutes of Ontario continue to be referred to as “sessional volumes,” the term is in fact a misnomer, since the bound volumes are published at the end of each calendar year, which generally does not coincide with the conclusion of a session of the legislature.

The Revised Statutes of Ontario, cited R.S.O., include the revisions and amendments and new enactments since the previous revision. The statutes are renumbered and re-enacted. The R.S.O. 1990 has been in force since January 1, 1992.

The rest of this section explains how to find an Ontario statute.

• Given the citation of the statute: Simply locate the Ontario statutes and select the required volume. As is the case with the citations of federal statutes, a citation of a provincial statute is likely to be to the last Revised Statutes of Ontario , and the up-dating procedure outlined below should be followed to ensure that any amendments to the statute are discovered.
• Given the title of the statute: You should refer to the blue pages in the most recent sessional volume, where the Table of Public Statutes will be found. It lists all statutes completely or partly in force at the end of the year, and indicates each statute’s chapter number, provided it was in force at the time of the last consolidation.
• Given the subject matter only, you should start with the Revised Statutes of Ontario 1990 (R.S.O. 1990) and its index (see below)

Given the title of the statute, you should then:

• Make a note of the amendments to the statute that are listed under the name of the statute.
• Look the statute up in the place indicated by the Table.
• Look up any relevant amending statutes.
• Continue the updating procedure by following the instructions in the next section below.

Given the subject matter only:

• Start with the Revised Statutes of Ontario 1990 (R.S.O. 1990) and its index. The headings in the index reflect the subjects of the statutory material, such as “construction industry,” as well as legal concepts, such as “burden of proof,” which may not be explicitly mentioned in the act.
• Scan the headings in bold print for your issue. Under each general heading are more specific topics with the chapter and section number of the relevant statute. Find the statute in the main work.
• Go to the updating procedure below.

Updating Ontario Statutes

Like the federal statutes, there are two ways of updating Ontario statutes: official and unofficial. The official method (using the “Table of Public Statutes”) is the same, as described above for updating federal statutes. The unofficial method of updating Ontario statutes is described below:

• To update an Ontario statute, first consult the white pages of the Ontario Statute Citator . Acts are organized alphabetically by title. Under the name of each act are the citations of amendments passed since the last R.S.O. If the amendments are relevant, look up the amending statute in the indicated volume of the Statutes of Ontario.
• Then turn to the Weekly Bulletin Service in the pink pages at the front of the Citator . As the name of this section implies, the citator is updated on a weekly basis while the legislature is in session.
• Check the “Status of Bills” for any new legislation that might affect the statute. The “Status of Bills” is issued by the Ontario legislature twice a week, and is available on the Internet or is kept on reserve in the library

Note: If your statute was amended by a recent act that has not yet been published in a volume of the annual statutes you may look for the third reading of the bill for that act. To find the correct bill number, check in the Provincial Legislative Record (on reserve) for all current public government bills from the most recent session of the thirteen provincial and territorial legislatures.