Finding Federal Orders in Council

Sourcing Orders in Council is rarely a straightforward task. Often researchers will experience frustrating hiccups in their search as they are faced with where to find unpublished Orders, as well as the inconsistent indexing standards of the past. 

This blog post will attempt to provide a checklist for where to look in the (sometimes) nebulous world of searching for Orders in Council. 

Generally, the Orders in Council¹ that researchers encounter take the form of regulations which are systematically published in the Canada Gazette. However, Orders in Council address a wide range of administrative and legislative matters and are, for the most part, unpublished.²

Published Orders – Sources & Tools  

Statutes of Canada, 1872-1939³ 
Selected Orders in Council of general public interest were published in the annual Statutes of Canada. 

Canada Gazette, 1867-1947 
Like the Statutes of Canada during this period, only selected Orders in Council were included in the Canada Gazette. This continued until 1947 when the federal government required all proclamations, orders, rules, and regulations that were registered in the Privy Council Office be published in the newly created Canada Gazette, Part II. 

Canada Gazette, 1947-present 
For issues between 1841-1997, look to the  Canada Gazette Archives. All parts of the Canada Gazette since 1998 are available on the Canada Gazette Publications webpage. The Great Library also has hard copies of the Canada Gazette from its inception in 1841 to 2014.⁴

• Part I contains the ever helpful Quarterly Indexes which includes a listing of notices and Orders in Council published in Part I in the previous 3 months. 
• Part II contains orders fixing the coming into force dates for acts.  

Tip: found a copy of a notice in the Gazette pursuant to an Order in Council but not the actual Order issued? You will probably need to contact the Privy Council or Library and Archives Canada (depending on the date) to obtain the full OIC.

Orders in Council: A Weekly Listing of Federal Cabinet Orders in Council, 1980-2007 (Available in print in the Main Reading Room of the Great Library)

This commercial service (published weekly when Cabinet met) does not provide the full text of the order but it does provide the Privy Council (P.C. number), a description of the terms of the order, and the statutory authority under which it is made. From 1984-2007 this source also contains a helpful annual topical index and a table of SOR and SI registration numbers to locate the Gazette the Order is published in.  

Unpublished Orders 

As noted earlier, most Orders in Council do not qualify for publishing under the Statutory Instruments Act or under the Act which they are made,⁵ but by checking the following databases and resources you may be able to obtain copies in other ways: 

Orders-in-Council Database (1867 – 1924) Library and Archives Canada
When using Advanced Search don’t forget to select “Orders-in-Council” in the database box. 

Orders-in-Council Database (1990 – present) Privy Council Office 
If the full text of your Order is not available as an attachment from the database, you can request it by emailing the Privy Council Office directly at oic-ddc@pco-bcp.gc.ca. The turnaround is reliable and quick, typically within one working day.  If the Order was made 5 years ago or longer, you will have to contact Library and Archives Canada (LAC). 

Library and Archives Canada also has several helpful finding aids for OICs including annual indexes and registers which list all the Orders in Council submitted by the Privy Council Office as well as department records.

More Sources for Historical Orders! 

Canadiana  

The Government Publications Collection contains various historical Orders in Council scanned from the microfiche of the original publication held by the Library and Archives Canada. You can access them by typing the number in the Search box, or by consulting the list of reels.  

LAC has also indexed Orders in Council issued between 1864-1924, when the OIC numbers were hand written on the document itself. For more information on how to access Orders in Council preserved at Library and Archives Canada, check out their blog post on the topic.

 

References

1. For information on what Orders in Council are look to the Privy Council’s Order in Council Division and this Process Guide for Governor in Council Submissions (Other than Regulations) ↩︎
2. To learn more about the evolution of Orders in Council publishing standards check out these insightful articles:
   Foote, Martha “Orders in Council” (1986) 11 CALL Newsletter;
   Hubley, Wendy & Beaulieu, Micheline, “Locating Canadian Orders in Council” (2001) 26:3 Canadian Law Libraries 83. ↩︎
3. Look to the Great Library’s research guide, On The Web: Where to Find Canadian Legislation for details on where to find Statutes of Canada. The Great Library also has hard copies located in the American Room. ↩︎
4. For more information on what’s published in the Gazette, check out our prior post: A Lesson in Anatomy: The Canada Gazette. ↩︎
5. For an interesting historical study on statutory instruments that must be made public (and published), check out, Rousseau, J., “The Obligation to Make Public and to Publish Orders in Council” (1983) Ottawa: Library of Parliament. ↩︎