Finding Ontario Orders in Council

Last year, we shared a blog post highlighting the sources and tools for finding current and historical federal orders in council – but what about Ontario? This blog post, together with a previous post – Finding Ontario OICs– will provide a checklist for where to look when searching for Ontario Orders in Council. A task that often leaves researchers empty-handed. 

A small percentage of Orders in Council are published in the Ontario Gazette, but most must be obtained from the Office of Executive Council.[1] Much like Federal Orders, Ontario Orders in Council address a wide range of administrative and legislative matters and are, for the most part, unpublished.

Published Orders – Sources & Tools 

Statutes of Ontario, 1934-1944
A partial index for Orders in Council is found in the annual volumes of the Statutes of Ontario (1934-1944); volumes contain a “table of proclamations, orders-in-council and regulations”. The Orders in Council indexed in these tables are only those that were printed in the Ontario Gazette and are mainly regulations. Most table entries provide the date of the Order in Council and the date it was printed in the Ontario Gazette. [2]

Ontario Gazette, 1868-1943[3]
During this period, it was rarer for Orders in Council to be included in the Ontario Gazette. This continued until 1943 when the Ontario government required proclamations, regulations and select orders to be published in the Ontario Gazette.

Ontario Gazette, 1944-present
For issues between 1868-2000, look to the Archives of Ontario. All sections of the Ontario Gazette since 2000 are available on the Ontario Gazette webpage. The Great Library also has hard copies of the Gazette from its inception in 1868, to when the print version ceased publication on March 31, 2021. Consult the indexes, published every 6 months, or the indexes which appear at the back of each issue.

Unpublished Orders 

As noted earlier, most Orders in Council do not qualify for publishing under the Legislation Act, 2006 [4] or under the Act which they are made, but by checking the following databases and resources you may be able to obtain copies in other ways: 

Orders in Council Database, July 1, 2016- present
For digital copies of Orders approved after July 1, 2016, search the Orders in Council database.

Government Ministry
You can also try getting information about the Order in Council directly from the government department responsible.

Archives of Ontario
Orders in Council created before 2000 are held by the Archives of Ontario. You can request these OICs by submitting an inquiry online or by phone.

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. Typically, these are historical Federal OICs, but it’s a source still worth checking. You can access them by typing the number in the Search box, or by consulting the list of reels. 

Internet Archive
While you may not be able to locate the full text of an OIC on the Internet Archive, you can conduct general searches to see what (if anything) exists for the Order you’re trying to track down. For example, The Legislative Assembly of Ontario Collection contains select full text issues of the Ontario Government Publications Annual Catalogue, which may yield some leads as to the citation of an Order, or the authority it was issued under.

References

[1] Government of Ontario, Orders in Council, 2024.

[2] Following the establishment of the Office of the Registrar of Regulations in 1944, inclusion of these tables was discontinued in the Statutes of Ontario annual volumes. 

[3] Summary on the history and establishment of the Ontario Gazette: “160 Years of the Canada Gazette “, Government of Canada. Retrieved from the Wayback machine 2024-11-12.

[4] The Legislation Act, 2006 repealed and replaced the Statutes Act, the Regulations Act, and the Interpretation Act, and assembled in one Act provisions about the publication, citation and interpretation of Ontario legislation.