Federal Acts and Regulations: An Overview

Acts

• Public Acts: A public Act may originate with the Government as a bill introduced in the name of a Cabinet minister, who is called the sponsoring minister. A public Act may also originate as a bill introduced by a member of the House of Commons who is not in the Cabinet. In the Senate, the distinction between Government and private members bills is less marked. Senators who are not members of the Cabinet use the drafting services of the Law Clerk of the Senate. The Government is not involved in drafting bills that originate with members of Parliament who are not in the Cabinet. However, departmental officials may intervene at the committee stage of these bills and may require drafters, jurilinguists and legislative editors in the Department of Justice to draft or review motions to amend them.
• Private Acts: Private Acts confer powers or special rights or exemptions on particular individuals or groups. They are passed by Parliament in almost the same way as public Acts, but the bills to enact them are introduced differently. In general, the Office of the Law Clerk of the Senate and the Legislative Counsel Office of the House of Commons draft the bills without any involvement by the Government.
• New and Amending Acts: Another way of distinguishing Acts is on the basis of their effect on other Acts. A bill may provide for the enactment of a new Act, as opposed to amending one or more existing Acts. If a bill to enact a new Act or amend an existing Act makes it necessary to amend other Acts, the bill will contain "consequential" or "related" amendments to those Acts.
• Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Acts: The Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Program provides for periodic amendments to remove anomalies, inconsistencies, outmoded language and errors from existing Acts and to make minor corrections. These amendments are subject to different procedures intended to speed up their enactment. The program is administered by the Legislation Section of the Department of Justice.

1. The Table of Public Statutes lists acts in alphabetical order. The original statute is listed first, and then amendments (if applicable) are listed. The easiest way to determine what has amended an act is to look at the end of the listing for a particular act - it lists the amendments in order by chapter number and section number, preceded by the letters "CIF" in front (meaning "coming into force"). Occasionally a regulation may be listed, e.g., if it amends a schedule of an act. Verify which sections are in force as at the date of The Table of Public Statutes (published three times a year).
2. Check issues of the Canada Gazette Part III which have been published subsequent to the date of latest Table. New statutes are published here, as well as a table of Proclamations related to Coming into Force.
3. Check issues of the Canada Gazette Part II which have been published subsequent to the date of the latest Canada Gazette Part II for Statutory Instruments which proclaim dates of coming into force for statutes.
4. When you have checked all of the above, you may wish to telephone the office of the Clerk of the House of Commons to verify if there have been any very recent proclamations of coming into force

Regulations