Legislative Research – Page 31 – Know How, the blog of the Great Library

Finding Legislative Histories on eLaws: A Refresher

Looking for legislative history and amendment information for Ontario statutes but find yourself unsure how to begin? Here’s a quick refresher on using e-Laws to get the information you need.

If you click into any piece of current consolidated legislation on e-Laws – I’ve used the Ambulance Act as an example – you can find three spots that contain legislative history information:

under the “Versions” tab,
in the “Legislative History” note,
and through the Source Notes under each section of the act.

1. “Versions”

The “Versions” tool of the e-Laws website is a great way to view historical versions of consolidated legislation. Simply click one of the listed hyperlinked date ranges to view a snapshot of how that act read during that period of time. Depending on the act, e-Laws provides historical versions of consolidated legislation going back as far as 2001.

2. “Legislative History”

Near the top of every consolidated act you will find a section that reads “Legislative History”. Here, you can find a list of cites to acts that have affected the current act in some way (whether through amendment, repeal or enactment) since the Revised Statutes of Ontario 1990. This is helpful when looking to trace an act back to before the “Versions” cut-off date.

3. Source Notes

When looking for legislative history information for specific provisions, look to the citations provided at the end of each section of the act. Unlike the information provided in the “Legislative History” section, these source notes highlight only those acts that have affected the specific section in some way. These source notes go back until the Revised Statutes of Ontario 1990. For more on how to read and utilize source notes, see our blog post here.

Tables on e-Laws

And of course, e-Laws has plenty of tables that can be helpful when conducting legislative research. The “main” table to use when tracing back legislation may well be the “Public Statutes and Ministers Responsible” table. This table provides info concerning minister(s) responsible, legislative history and repeal information going back until the Revised Statutes of Ontario 1990. Here is a full list of e-Laws legislative tables.

Need legislative history information going back before the Revised Statutes of Ontario 1990? HeinOnline has got you covered. You can find tables of public statutes at the end of volumes of the digitized Ontario annual statutes up to 2001. These tables provide information on statutes such as: their citation within the most recent revision as well as amendment and repeal information. And don’t forget — Law Society of Ontario licensees have free remote access to HeinOnline through the Great Library.

House of Bills: A Weekly Update on Ontario Bills

Below, we have compiled a list of those bills which progressed through the House during the emergency sessions of March 19 and March 25. As of now, the House stands adjourned until Tuesday, April 14. Additionally, all committee meetings have been cancelled until further notice.

Sitting dates: March 19 & 25
42nd Parliament, 1st Session

Bill 181, Supply Act, 2020
Royal assent (March 19)

Bill 186, Employment Standards Amendment Act (Infectious Disease Emergencies), 2020
First reading (March 19)
Second reading, carried (March 19)
Third reading, carried (March 19)
Royal Assent (March 19)

Bill 187, Municipal Emergency Act, 2020
First reading (March 19)
Second reading, carried (March 19)
Third reading, carried (March 19)
Royal assent (March 19)

Bill 188, Economic and Fiscal Update Act, 2020
First Reading (March 25)
Second Reading, carried (March 25)
Third Reading, carried (March 25)
Royal Assent (March 25)

LEGISinfo: Tips for Tracking Federal Bill Activity

As some of you may know, the Great Library has been reporting on the legislative activity of Ontario public bills in our new blog series “House of Bills”. Though we don’t cover the federal side of things, here are a few tips for using LEGISinfo to keep track of federal bills as they move through the House of Commons and the Senate.

On the home page of LEGISinfo, you’ll notice that there are a few filter options near the top of the page. For the purposes of tracking the most recent activity of bills, we will be using the “Latest Activity Date” and “Show Details” filters shown below:

By clicking on the “Latest Activity Date”, the bills with the most recent activity are pulled to the top of the page in descending order.

Now that we’ve manipulated the list to show the bills with the most recent activity first, we can use the “Show Details” filter to reveal more information concerning the activity of each bill. Once expanded, we can now see the last stage the bill has completed under the “Last stage Complete” section and by the bar graph in the top right corner (shown below):

It’s important to note that the data contained in this section reflects the latest stage that the bill has completed, and not necessarily the stage the bill is currently being considered under. For instance, though the entry shown above for Bill C-6 only mentions the first reading, the bill is currently being considered for second reading. If you click the “View Complete Bill Details” link, you will be taken to a page that shows that Bill C-6 sat for second reading on February 24, though it has not yet completed the second reading stage.

For another tool that shows you the latest stage a bill has reached and not necessarily completed, select the “Legislative at a Glance” option located on the left-hand side of the LEGISinfo home page. “Legislation at a Glance” provides an overview of bills under consideration in either the Senate or the House of Commons