When we talk about commencement for statutes, we normally think of annual or amending statutes. However, did you know that printed official revised statutes also have commencement dates?
How does this affect my statute tracing research?
Although the revised statutes come with Coming into Force (CIF) dates, it’s important to remember that the revised statutes are not amendments – the substance of the laws do not change during the revision process. In our previous blog post about statute consolidation and revision, we noted that:
“Re-enactment means the existing legislative text is repealed and replaced by the newly revised legislative text and then proclaimed in force. However, the substantive law that is expressed remains the same and the coming into force date of an original provision included in a revision is unchanged by re-enactment”.
Individual revised statutes do not have corresponding Hansard debates since they are not bills (proposed legislation) which undergo readings in parliament. Instead, Ontario and Federal revised statutes are often authorized by a single act (for example, see Statutes Revision Act, 1989 via Internet Archive), which typically provides for the set of revised statutes to come into force by proclamation [1].
Since there are no substantive changes made to the law by revised statutes, their CIF dates may have little or no bearing on your legislative research. However, you may need to note the CIF dates if those non-substantive changes are important to your research. We have listed the CIF dates of the revised statutes below for Federal statutes and Ontario statutes, or you can download our printable PDF guide for your convenience.
CIF dates for Federal Revised Statutes
We are building upon the BC Courthouse libraries’ helpful webpage which provides in-force dates for the Federal Revised Statutes of Canada from R.S.C. 1952 to R.S.C. 1985 [2].
Prior to R.S.C. 1952, there were 3 prior revisions: R.S.C 1886, R.S.C. 1906, and R.S.C. 1927. Their CIF info is listed below. All links below go to the digitized statutes on the Internet Archive, unless otherwise indicated.
R.S.C. 1886
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1886 were in force March 1, 1887 by proclamation (found in Canada Gazette, vol. 20, no. 32, Regular Issue, February 5, 1887)
Authorizing statute: An Act respecting the Revised Statutes of Canada ([1886] S.C. 49 V., c. 4) via Canadiana.
R.S.C. 1906
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1906 were in force January 31, 1907 by proclamation (found in Canada Gazette, vol. 40, no. 30, Regular Issue, January 26, 1907) and by statute An Act respecting the Revised Statutes, 1906 (6-7 Edward VII, c. 43). [3] The text of the statute can also be found in Canada Gazette, vol. 40, Supplement, February 9, 1907.
Authorizing statute: An Act respecting the Revised Statutes of Canada ([1903] S.C. 3 Edw. 7, c. 61)
R.S.C. 1927
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1927 were in force February 1, 1928 by proclamation (found in Canada Gazette, vol. 61, Extra, December 24, 1927).
Authorizing statute: An Act respecting the Revised Statutes of Canada ([1924] S.C. 14-15 Geo. V, c. 65)
R.S.C. 1952
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1952 were in force September 15, 1953 by proclamation (see SOR/53-286 in Canada Gazette, Pt. 2, vol. 87, no. 14, p. 656, Regular Issue, July 22, 1953).
Authorizing statute: An Act respecting the Revised Statutes of Canada (S.C. 1948, c. 67)
R.S.C. 1970
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1970 were in force July 15, 1971 by proclamation (see SOR/71-309 in Canada Gazette, Pt. 1, vol. 105, no. 27, p. 1715, Regular Issue, July 3, 1971).
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1970 (1st Supplement) were in force July 15, 1971 by proclamation (see SOR/71-309 in Canada Gazette, Pt. 1, vol. 105, no. 27, p. 1715, Regular Issue, July 3, 1971).
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1970 (2nd Supplement) were in force August 1, 1972 by proclamation (see SI/72-64 in Canada Gazette, Pt. 1, vol. 106, no. 26, p. 1727, Regular Issue, June 24, 1972).
Authorizing statute: An Act respecting the Revised Statutes of Canada (S.C. 1964-65, c. 48).
R.S.C. 1985
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985 were in force December 12, 1988 by order (see SI/88-227 in Canada Gazette, Pt. 2, vol. 122, no. 24, p. 4896, Regular Issue, November 23, 1988).
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985 (1st Supplement) were in force December 12, 1988 by order (see SI/88-228 in Canada Gazette, Pt. 2, vol. 122, no. 24, p. 4897, Regular Issue, November 23, 1988).
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985 (2nd Supplement) were in force December 12, 1988 by order (see SI/88-239 in Canada Gazette, Pt. 2, vol. 122, no. 26, p. 5614, Regular Issue, December 23, 1988).
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985 (3rd Supplement) were in force May 1, 1989 by order (see SI/89-123 in Canada Gazette, Pt. 2, vol. 123, no. 10, p. 2489, Regular Issue, May 10, 1989).
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985 (4th Supplement) were in force November 1, 1989 by order (see SI/89-231 in Canada Gazette, Pt. 2, vol. 123, no. 23, p. 4621, Regular Issue, November 8, 1989).
Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985 (5th Supplement) were in force March 1, 1994 by order (see SI/94-19 in Canada Gazette, Pt. 2, vol. 128, no. 4, p. 1181, Regular Issue, February 23, 1994).
Authorizing statute: Statute Revision Act (S.C. 1974-75-76, c. 20)
CIF dates for Ontario Revised Statutes
All links below go to the digitized statutes on the Internet Archive, unless otherwise indicated.
R.S.O. 1877
Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1877 were in force on December 31, 1877 by proclamation (found in R.S.O. 1877, volume 1).
Authorizing statute: An Act respecting the Revised Statutes of Ontario (S.O. 40 V., c. 6)
R.S.O. 1887
Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1887 were in force on December 31, 1887 by proclamation (found in R.S.O. 1887, volume 1 via Google Books).
Authorizing statute: An Act respecting the Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1887 (S.O. 50 V., c. 2)
R.S.O. 1897
Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1897 were in force on December 31, 1897 by proclamation (found in R.S.O. 189, volume 1, via Google Books).
Authorizing statute: An Act to provide for the Consolidation of Statutes of Ontario (S.O. 60 V., c. 3)
R.S.O. 1914
Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1914 were in force on March 1, 1914 by proclamation (found in R.S.O. 1914, volume 3).
Authorizing statute: An Act respecting the Revision and Consolidation of the Statutes of Ontario (S.O. 3-4 Geo 5, c. 2)
R.S.O. 1927
Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1927 were in force on December 31, 1927 by proclamation (found in R.S.O. 1927, volume 4).
Authorizing statute: An Act to Provide for the Consolidation of the Statutes of Ontario (S.O. 1927, c.3)
R.S.O. 1937
Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1937 were in force on January 24, 1938 by proclamation (found in R.S.O. 1937, volume 4).
Authorizing statute: An Act to Provide for the Consolidation of the Statutes of Ontario (S.O. 1937, c. 6)
R.S.O. 1950
Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1950 were in force on December 31, 1950 by proclamation (found in R.S.O. 1950, volume 5).
Authorizing statute: The Statutes Consolidation Act, 1949 (S.O. 1949, c. 96)
R.S.O. 1960
Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1960 were in force on January 1, 1961 by proclamation (found in R.S.O. 1960, volume 5).
Authorizing statute: The Statutes Revision Act, 1959 (S.O. 1959, c. 94)
R.S.O. 1970
Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1970 were in force on September 1, 1971 by proclamation (found in R.S.O. 1970, volume 6).
Authorizing statutes: The Statutes Revision Act, 1968-69, S.O. 1968-69, c. 120 AND The Statutes Revision Amendment, 1970, S.O. 1970, c. 93
R.S.O. 1980
Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1980 were in force on August 1, 1981 by proclamation (found in R.S.O. 1980, volume 9).
Authorizing statute: The Statutes Revision Act, 1979, S.O. 1979, c. 109
R.S.O. 1990
Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1990 were in force on December 31, 1991 by proclamation (found in Statutes of Ontario, 1991, volume 2).
Authorizing statute: Statutes Revision Act, 1989, S.O. 1989, c. 81.
References
[1] Norman Larsen, “Statute Revision and Consolidation: History, Process and Problems” (1987) 19:2 Ottawa L Rev 321 at 336, online: CanLII.
[2] Courthouse Libraries BC, “Revised Statutes of Canada – In force dates” online: Our Legal Knowledge Base, last visited 21 March 2022.
[3] Larsen, supra note 1 at 327-328: “The 1906 Revision is the only one that involved two authorizing statutes. An Act respecting the Revised Statutes of Canada authorizes the Revision while The Revised Statutes of Canada, 1906, Act repeats most of the 1903 statute, enacts the completed Revision, makes a minor amendment to the 1903 Act and then repeals it.”
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