WHAT'S THE SCOOP ON...

FINDING FEDERAL LEGISLATION ON THE INTERNET

Part I: When Looking for a Specific Act

Suppose you want to know whether the Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park Act has been passed yet. How do you use the Internet to locate federal legislation and determine whether there are related pieces of legislation for your subject?

Step 1: SEARCH CURRENT LEGISLATION

A. House of Commons Bills:

Most bills start in the House of Commons and progress to the Senate. If you have a name or a bill number within a Parliament and session, you can go to the Status of House Business web site.

Check the Government Bills, Private Bills, and Private Members Public Bills links, using the FIND button on the web browser to search to a key word in the title of the Bill. In this instance, we searched Government Bills using the keyword of "Saguenay" and, in addition to the hypertext link to Bill C-7, received information on the passage of the Bill in the House and Senate.

B. Senate Bills:

The starting place for bills which originate in Senate is Progress of Legislation web site.

In this instance, we will select the Senate Progress of Legislation site and use the web browser FIND button to search for the term "Saguenay".

Bill Title 1st 2nd Committee Report Amend 3rd R.A. Chap.
C-7 An Act to Establish.... 97/11/97 97/12/02 Energy, Environment... 97/12/09 None 97/12/10 97/12/10 37/97

If you are not sure whether the legislation is a Government Bill or a Private Bill, it is possible to start with the Senate Progress of Legislation which identifies all bills originating in Senate or in the House, whether government or private bills. The Bill number, C7, originates in the House of Commons ( C ) and is numbered less than 200, which indiates that it is a government-sponsored bill. The dates correspond to the passage of the Bill through Senate, and we are given the information that the legislation, as passed, is in the 1997 Statutes of Canada as chapter 37.

Step 2: SEARCH LEGISLATION IN FORCE:

To check to see if there are any other pieces of legislation establishing Marine parks, go to the Dept. Of Justice web site and check either the Consolidated Statutes or the Table of Statutes.

The Table of Statutes, a Folio-based database, works as index to the Statutes, showing all the Chapters of the Revised Statutes of 1985, with amendments, and other public acts and amendments from 1907 to December 31, 1996. The Consolidated Statutes takes you directly to the act itself but does not indicate, as clearly, when the act was significantly amended.

Step 3. TRACKING LEGISLATION IN HANSARD:

Information on the intent and/or principles of the Act can be found in Hansard when the Bill comes before the House for second reading. After the sponsoring Minister introduces the legislation, explaining the need, intent and principles of the proposed legislation, the principles of the bill are debated and the bill may be sent to a parliamentary committee for detailed study.

Go to the Hansard Index, select the letter corresponding to the Bill Title (in this case, S ), and use the browser FIND button to locate "Saguenay." Click on the hypertext links to see the relevant sections in Hansard.

In addition to the second reading, it is worth while to check the committee minutes and evidence of the committee to which the bill was referred. Detailed examination of the legislation occurs in the committees and evidence may include discussion from experts on various aspects of the proposed legislation and as well as lobby interests.

USEFUL WEB SITES

Provided as links on the Government Documents, Data and Maps Department home page

36-1 Parliament: House of Commons

36-1 Parliament: Senate 35-2 Parliament: House of Commons 35-2 Parliament: Senate Statutes and Regulations:



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Document Maintained by:
E. Hamilton
email addressHamilton@unb.ca
Last Update: 18/01/98

This document http://www.lib.unb.ca/library/govdocs/bill-ca1.html