What's new?

This new tool is progressive and adapted to today's work environment. It is designed to facilitate access to parliamentary information and to make searching more efficient and effective than before.

• The Retrieval tool enables you to search recent events, e.g. debates of the previous day.
• It reduces the number of required steps to access the desired information. A single click can now give you access to the most recent, the most popular or the most relevant occurrences related to the subject of the search.
• The Advanced Search option offers several options to help better target your search.
• Eventually, it will be possible to search more than one Parliament at the same time.

What kind of information is available?

The Retrieval tool is the key to finding information contained in the House of Commons Debates (Hansard) and Committee Evidence of the 1st Session of the 39th Parliament. While the Retrieval tool enables you to access information about those publications, please note that due to the necessary transition period, detailed analysis of the documents covering the April 2006 to June 2006 period is only available under the old format. The publications indexes of the previous Parliaments are available by accessing the section Choose a session at the bottom left-hand corner of this page.

When is information available?

As of 9 a.m. you can access documents published the previous day, including the Hansard. At that time, you can search for information pertaining to bills, members of the House of Commons and members of committees.

Who are the users of the Retrieval tool?

This new tool was created to help our customers and our partners as well as the general public.

How does the Retrieval tool work?

The tool is designed to facilitate access to information and show results in an effective and efficient manner. Like the indexes of previous sessions, it is subject-based; so keep in mind when doing a research that the tool will retrieve only the occurrences where the researched subject has been and not necessarily all occurrences where the subject is part of the content. However, the tool takes synonyms into account when retrieving information. So searching "mad cow disease" or "bovine spongiform encephalopathy" will bring the same results. All you need to do to use the Retrieval tool is type the term you wish to search in the Term text box and hit the Return key.

What type of research can I do?

You can search subjects relating to roles (e.g. Prime Minister), bills, persons (members of the House of Commons and its committees), organizations, parliamentary procedures (e.g. Oral Questions) and all subjects of political, economic or social nature forming the basis of discussions and activities of members of Parliament. How to conduct an efficient search Use the Advanced Search option to better target your research. You can use this option to limit the results and personalize the way results are shown consequently finding what you want more rapidly. For more information, see User Guide.

What is Information Management?

Parliamentary Publication Information Management manages, in both official languages, a controlled list of analytical subjects covering the wide fields of social, economic and political information forming the basis of discussions and activities of members of Parliament. Relying on those analytical subjects, information officers index the content of the parliamentary publications, on a daily basis (Hansard and committee evidence) to make it easily accessible using the Retrieval tool. It prepares as well, in both official languages, a comprehensive cumulative subject index to other major parliamentary publications (Journals and Status of House Business). The Information Management also provides reference assistance to persons seeking information regarding any of the above-named publications. Examples of questions we can answer include:

• When did a Member ask a question in the House about gun control?
• When was a particular Bill introduced in the House?
• How did a Member vote on a particular Bill?
• What is the current status of a Bill?
• Could you tell me if the current government has introduced any legislation regarding gun control?
• Can you provide me with a list of topics (subjects) that a Member has spoken on in the House and in Committee?
• Where can I find a copy of a committee report?

If we cannot answer your questions we will refer you to an appropriate source.

How to contact us?

• Telephone: (613) 992-8976
• Fax: (613) 992-9417
• E-mail: indref@parl.gc.ca