Statutes

Research of Statutes

Statutory law in Canada has some similarities and some differences from statutory law within the United States. Similar to federal statutes within the United States, a federal statute in Canada applies to every province and territory within Canada. A provincial statute only has mandatory authority within its own jurisdiction. Thus, a British Columbia statute has no mandatory authority within another province or territory within Canada. In the United States, if a power is not mentioned as belonging to the federal government, that power would come under the power of the states. However, in Canada, the opposite holds true. If a power is not mentioned as belonging to a provincial government, then that power lies with the national Parliament.

For more information on the legislative process within Canada’s national Parliament, click here. For information regarding how a bill becomes a law within Canada’s parliament, visit LEGISInfo, and then click on “How does a bill become a law?” Additionally, the Department of Justice has a detailed guide on its web site, entitled A Guide to the Making of Federal Acts and Regulations.

Access to free legislative information on the Internet varies by province and territory, but a good resource to use for access to the statutory collections of most of the Canadian jurisdictions is the Canadian Legislative Information Institute, which contains 13 collections. In addition, the University of Toronto’s Law Library has amassed many internet sources of Canadian federal and provincial legislation into one table.

You will always want to make sure that your statutory legal research is up to date. To verify that a Canadian federal statute in still good in print, consult the Canada Statute Citator (KE 106.C36x). This resource tracks any amendments to an act after the 1985 consolidation. Also, online resources such as CanLII or any of the legislative bill services offered by many of the Canadian provincial legislature web sites may be used. In addition, these online research guides provide detailed, step-by-step instruction on how to perform statutory research; prepared by Queens University (instruction on federal and Ontario statutory research), University of Calgary, and Catherine P. Best.

Canadian provincial statutory compilations are available in print at the Harvard Law Library. Canadian provincial session laws are also available. A list below shows the locations of the federal statutory compilations, session laws, and regulations of Canada. Find in this legal Encyclopedia a table of the provincial and territorial legislative websites.

Currently, there are ten provinces and three territories within Canada. Establishing a new province would require Constitutional amendment. Once a province is established, per section 92 of the Constitution Act, 1867, a province has exclusive legislative authority. In contrast, territories only have that legislative authority given to them by Parliament, which may be limited.

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

Provincial and Territorial Sessions Laws

The following list delineates several provincial and territorial session laws, by Name of Session Law Compilation:

• Statutes of Alberta . Call Number: KEA 39 .A2 (1981-present) and Call Number: KEA 39 .A2a   (1906-1980)
• Alberta Gazette
• British Columbia Statutes . Call Number: KEB 39. A2 (1980-2003) or KEB 39 .A2 (1872-1979). And Call Number: Rare K Bri 122 858 (before union with colony of Vancouver)
• British Columbia Gazette
• Manitoba Gazette
• Manitoba Statutes . Call Number: KEM 39.A26 (1987-[1991?]). See also  (1992-present) and  (1871-1882) (in French)
• Statutes of Newfoundland . Call Number: KEN1239 .A2 (2001-2002) and Call Number: KEN 1239 .A2a (1949-1975; 1934-1948; 1900-1933)
• Ordinances of the Northwest Territories: Call Number: KEN 5439 .A22 (1985-present) and  Call Number: KEN 5439 .A22 (1877-1984).
• Statutes of Nova Scotia . Call Number: KEN 7439 .A2a and KEN 7439 .A2
• Statutes of Ontario: Call Number: KEO 62 .S73 (1988-present) and Call Number KEO 62 .S73a (1968-1987)
• Ontario Regulations:  Call Number: KEQ 91 .058
• Statutes of Quebec . Call Number: KEQ 63 .S73 (1978-present, English) and Call Number: KEQ 63 .S735 (1978-present, French)
• Statutes of Saskatchewan . Call Number: KES 44 1998x and KES 39. A2
• Saskatchewan Gazette
• Statutes of the Yukon Territory . Call Number: Mic KEY 39 .A23a  (1981 only) and Call Number: KEY 39 .A23 (1982-present)

Citation Notes

In Canada, statutes generally appear in a supplement to the RS where they are passed in the year of a consolidation too late to be included in that consolidation.

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This entry was last updated: April 22, 2016