Regulations

A regulation is a piece of subordinate legislation. Generally speaking, “subordinate legislation” (also called “delegated legislation”) is the generic term given to rules, regulations, orders, bylaws, or proclamations made by an authority (Governor-in-Council, minister, government department, judicial or quasi-judicial body) under the terms of an act of Parliament or act of a provincial legislature. The authoritative act under which a regulation is issued is referred to as the Enabling Statute. Regulations are concerned with highly specific legislative detail while enabling statutes deal more with general matters or principles for the topic or subject concerned. For example, an enabling statute will outline policy or objectives while regulations made under that act will provide actual detailed information as to how the legislative objectives are to be carried out. Subordinate legislation has the force of law.

Regulations are issued and change on a very regular basis. These rapid changes make regulations a challenge to work with because updating becomes such an important component of the researching process. It is essential to always be as current as possible to avoid missing any important information.

Research of Regulations

Similar to the consolidation of Canada’s federal and provincial statutes, the federal regulations of Canada were last consolidated in 1978, in the work “Consolidated Regulations of Canada, 1978”. Any amendments to these regulations or any new regulations since promulgated can be found online within the Canada Gazette Part II. Regulations are published within the Gazette within 23 days of registration (unless the enabling statute provides that a particular regulation is exempt from publication), per the Statutory Instruments Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. S-22.

Federal regulations are published in the Canada Gazette, Part II, while Ontario regulations appear in the weekly Ontario Gazette.

Before relying on a regulation, it is important to know its effective date. For those regulations that are published, the regulation is deemed to be effective as of the date it is registered with the Clerk of the Privy Council. For regulations exempt from publication, the regulation is effective as of its promulgation date. For more information regarding regulations and detailed instructions on how to find regulations in print, online and on CD-rom, the sections about Legal Research Materials and Finding and Updating Regulations should be consulted.

Provincial regulations of Canada (see below) are available in print and electronic databases subscribed to by several law libraries. For more information, review the Department of Justice’s guide mentioned above regarding the making of regulations and the work “Updating Statutes and Regulations for All Canadian Jurisdictions” (KE 250.S47).

Federal Regulations

Note: see more detailed information about this entry, including Finding Federal Regulations, click here.

Print Sources For Federal Regulations:

• Consolidated Regulations of Canada(CRC)
• – consolidated Dec. 31, 1977
• Canada Gazette Part II – Annual Volumes
• Canada Gazette Part II- Individual Issues
• Consolidated Index of Statutory Instruments
• Canada Regulations Index

Online Sources For Federal Regulations: Department of Justice Website:
– Consolidated Regulations
– Consolidated Index of Statutory Instruments

Quiklaw Sources For Federal Regulations:

• Consolidated Regulations of Canada Table of Contents
• Canada Regulations- Full-text
• Canada Regulations- up-to-date

Canadian Provincial Regulations

For more detailed information about Ontario regulations, click here.

Finding Canada’s Provincial Regulations

The following list delineates which regulatory compilations are, in general, available at law libraries, by Name of Regulatory Compilation:

• Regulations of Alberta
• Consolidated Regulations of British Columbia . Call Number: KEB 78 .B74
• Regulations of Manitoba
• Regulations of New Brunswick . Call Number: KEN78 .N48x 1984
• Consolidated Statutes and Regulations of Newfoundland
• Revised Regulations of the Northwest Territories. According to Rule 2.1.6.2.8 of the Citation Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, the Revised Regulations of the Northwest Territories (1990), and the Northwest Territories Gazette, Part II, should be reviewed for all regulations promulgated before April 1, 1999, regarding the territory now known as Nuvanut. For regulations promulgated after April 1, 1999, it is suggested that users review the Nunavut Gazette.
• Consolidated Nova Scotia Regulations (coverage only from 1974-1976)
• Revised Regulations of Ontario . Call Number: KEO 91 .O58
• Revised Regulations of Prince Edward Island . Call Number: KEP78 .P74x
• Revised Regulations of Quebec . Call Number: KEQ83 1981b
• Regulations of Saskatchewan . Call Number: KES 83 .S27x
• Regulations of the Yukon . Call Number: KEY 78 1993x

Note: We linked the resources to archive.org in an effort to decrease the number of broken links cited.

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This entry was last updated: April 22, 2016