Private Members' Public Bills: Private Members' Public Bills are legislative initiatives sponsored by a private Member, that is, a Member who is not a Minister of the Crown. They are public policy initiatives that affect the entire general public or a portion thereof. These bills are numbered from C-201 to C-1000.

Private Bills: Private bills are legislative initiatives sponsored by a private Member, which concern matters of a particular interest or benefit to a person or persons. These bills are numbered beginning with C-1001.

Private Senators’ Public Bills: Private Senators’ public bills are legislative initiatives sponsored by a private Senator, that is, a Senator who is not a Minister of the Crown. They are public policy initiatives that affect the entire general public or a portion thereof.

Private Senators’ Private Bills: Usually just referred to as "private bills", private Senators’ private bills are also legislative initiatives sponsored by a private Senator, but based upon a petition to Parliament by a member of the public. Private bills legislate with respect to specific persons or groups. No provision in a private Act affects the rights of any person, except as mentioned or referred to in the Act.

Senate Government Bills: Bills sponsored by the Government which are first introduced in the Senate.

Legislative Summaries are prepared by the Parliamentary Research Branch to provide Parliamentarians with an explanatory document for most government bills. They are written by Research Officers knowledgeable in the relevant area of policy or law as soon as resources permit following First Reading of a bill. New Legislative Summaries will be posted on the web site once the texts are available in both official languages.

While Legislative Summaries are made available for a wide range of government bills, there are some exceptions: documents are not prepared for taxation measures, omnibus legislation or brief, self- explanatory bills. Legislative Summaries are revised to reflect amendments, where feasible. Text discussing amendments will appear in bold type in the document.