FINDING INFORMATION
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

Federal Statutes and Regulations

All primary links regarding federal statutes and regulations are contained on our Laws of Canada page.

Statutes
To find a specific statute, you can use our Laws search or consult our alphabetical listing of statutes. Our website also contains the List of Repealed Acts, which contains a listing of acts which are no longer active, but nonetheless useful for reference purposes. You may also wish to consult the Table of Private Acts, a historical index showing all private Acts of Canada, other than those dealing with divorces, that have been enacted since 1867 and that appear in the Statutes of Canada from 1867 to December 31, 1997. If you are searching for historical information on specific statutes, we suggest you consult the Table of Public Statutes, which contains useful details such as the dates of enactment and the responsible ministers as well as a detailed listing of amendments, including repealed sections.

Regulations
Most regulations on our site are referenced according to their enabling statute. If you know the name of the enabling statute, you should consult the alphabetical listing of statutes and select the regulations link located besides the different available formats to access the statute's underlying regulations. It is often the case that users know the name of the regulation they wish to access, but not the enabling statute. In such cases, we suggest using the search page and specify the name of the regulation or its SOR (statutory orders and regulations) identifier (e.g. SOR/95-245). Our collection also includes regulations which do not have enabling statutes and are considered Other than statutory authority.

Statutes and Regulations in Printed Form
If you are searching for a bound print version of federal legislation, these publications can be obtained from:

Canadian Government Publishing  (PWGSC)
Ottawa ON K1A 0S9
Tel.: (819) 956-4802
Fax: (819) 994-1498

Internet: : http://publications.gc.ca/control/publicHomePage?lang=English

Provincial Statutes and Regulations
The Department of Justice does not maintain provincial statutes on its website. However, other websites such as Legis.ca, do maintain such listings.

Government Bills

The Department of Justice does not publish proposed legislation on its website, although our News page does include news releases and backgrounders which explain in some detail proposed legislation originating from the Department itself.

All federal government bills are published and maintained on the Government Bills page, which resides on the Parliamentary Internet Site.

Recent Legislation

The consolidated statutes and regulations published on our website are updated quarterly. If you are seeking access to recent legislation which has not yet been incorporated in our electronic collection of federal statutes and regulations, we suggest you visit the Canada Gazette, which is quick to publish legislation that has recently received Royal Assent.

Court Decisions

With the exception of the Canadian Charter of Rights Decisions, the Department does not publish court decisions. The Supreme Court of Canada provides free access to all of its decisions since January 1993, and the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs provides access to Federal Court decisions.

Constitutional Documents

The complete collection of constitutional documents is currently online. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is also available as a separate document.

Canadian Justice System

Several publications on our site explain the general premises of the Canadian justice system. These include:

• Canada's System of Justice
• Canada's Court System
Guide to Making Federal Acts and Regulations (PDF )

Child Support Guidelines

The Federal Child Support Guidelines came into effect on May 1, 1997 (SOR/97-175), and are currently available on the Child Support site.

Immigrating to Canada

Although we provide access for reference purposes to the Immigration Act and its Regulations, the Department of Justice is not directly involved in matters regarding immigrating to Canada. You should contact Citizenship and Immigration Canada or consult its online resources.