Legislation Revision and Consolidation Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. S-20)

Short Title

Marginal note:Short title

1 This Act may be cited as the Legislation Revision and Consolidation Act.

Interpretation

Marginal note:Definitions

2 In this Act,

Commission

Commission means the Statute Revision Commission established by section 3; (Commission)

Minister

Minister means the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada; (ministre)

regulations

 regulations means

• (a) statutory orders and regulations published in the Consolidated Regulations of Canada, 1978,

• (b) regulations, statutory instruments and other documents published in the Canada Gazette, Part II, after the publication of the Consolidated Regulations of Canada, 1978, and

• (c) any other regulations, statutory instruments or documents that, in the opinion of the Minister, are of continuing effect or apply to more than one person or body and that are not exempted from publication pursuant to regulations made under paragraph 20(c) of the Statutory Instruments Act; (règlements)

revision

 revision means

• (a) for the purposes of Part I, the arrangement, revision and consolidation of the public general statutes of Canada authorized under that Part; and

• (b) for the purposes of Part II, the arrangement, revision and consolidation of the regulations authorized under that Part. (révision)

Statute Revision Commission

Marginal note:Commission established

• 3 (1) There is hereby established a Statute Revision Commission consisting of three employees of the Department of Justice appointed thereto by the Minister.

• Marginal note:Chairman

  (2) The Minister shall designate one of the members of the Commission to be Chairman thereof.

Marginal note:Duties

4 The Commission shall, under the direction of the Minister, perform the duties imposed on the Commission under this Act.

PART IPublic General Statutes

Revision

Marginal note:Revision of statutes

5 The Commission shall, from time to time, revise the public general statutes of Canada.

Marginal note:Powers of Commission

6 In preparing a revision, the Commission may

• (a) omit therefrom all Acts or parts thereof that have expired, have been repealed or suspended, or have had their effect;

• (b) omit therefrom all Acts or parts thereof that, although enacted as or in public Acts, have reference only to a particular country, province, locality, place or body politic, or otherwise have no general application;

• (c) include therein Acts or parts thereof that, although enacted as or in private Acts, or although deemed to be local Acts or enactments, are of such a character that they impose duties or obligations on, or limit the rights or privileges of, the public;

• (d) alter the numbering and arrangement of the statutes and of the different Parts, sections and other divisions thereof;

• (e) make such alterations in the language of the statutes as may be required to preserve a uniform mode of expression, without changing the substance of any enactment;

• (f) make such minor improvements in the language of the statutes as may be required to bring out more clearly the intention of Parliament, or make the form of expression of the statute in one of the official languages more compatible with its expression in the other official language, without changing the substance of any enactment;

• (g) make such changes in the statutes as are required to reconcile seemingly inconsistent enactments; and

• (h) correct editing, grammatical or typographical errors in the statutes.

Marginal note:Parliamentary examination

• 7 (1) During the progress of the preparation of a revision or on the conclusion thereof, or both during the progress and on the conclusion thereof, the Minister shall cause drafts of the statutes so revised to be laid for examination and approval before such Committee of the House of Commons and such Committee of the Senate, or such Committee of both Houses of Parliament, as may be designated for the purpose of the examination and approval.

• Marginal note:Enactment of Revised Statutes

  (2) When drafts of all the statutes included in a revision have been examined and approved by the Committee or Committees referred to in subsection (1), the Minister shall cause to be prepared and introduced in Parliament a bill substantially in accord with the model bill set out in the schedule, or to the like effect.

8 [Repealed, 2000, c. 5, s. 63]

9 [Repealed, 2000, c. 5, s. 63]

9.1 [Repealed, 2000, c. 5, s. 63]

PART IIRegulations

Revision

Marginal note:Revision of regulations

10 The Commission shall, from time to time, revise the regulations.

Marginal note:Powers of Commission

11 In preparing and maintaining the Revised Regulations and in keeping the Revised Regulations up to date, the Commission may exercise, in respect of the regulations, the powers that it has under section 6 in respect of a revision under Part I.

Marginal note:Deposit of revision

• 12 (1) On receipt of a written report from the Commission in respect of the completion of all or any part of the Revised Regulations, the Governor in Council may cause a printed Roll of the regulations, attested under the signature of the Minister and the President of the Privy Council, to be deposited in the office of the Clerk of the Privy Council, and the Roll shall be held to be the original of the regulations included in it.

• Marginal note:Schedule

  (2) There shall be appended to each Roll a schedule similar in form to the Schedule to Appendix I appended to the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985, and the Commission may include in the schedule a list of all regulations and parts of regulations that, although not expressly repealed, are superseded by the regulations included in the Roll, or are inconsistent with them, and a list of all regulations and parts of regulations that were for a temporary purpose the force of which is spent.

Marginal note:Coming into force date

• 13 (1) The Governor in Council, after deposit of a Roll in accordance with subsection 12(1), may by order declare the day on which the Roll shall come into force and have effect as law.

• Marginal note:Effect

  (2) On the day referred to in subsection (1) in respect of any Roll, the regulations included in that Roll shall accordingly come into force and have effect as law as part of the Revised Regulations to all intents as if each regulation had been made by the appropriate regulation-making authority and all the requirements with respect to the making of that regulation had been complied with.

• Marginal note:Repeal

  (3) On the day referred to in subsection (1), all regulations and parts of regulations listed in the schedule to the Roll are repealed to the extent mentioned in that schedule.

• Marginal note:Definition of regulation-making authority

  (4) In this section and section 22, regulation-making authority means, in relation to any regulation, the authority authorized to make the regulation.

Marginal note:Notice in Canada Gazette

14 The Commission may cause to be published in the Canada Gazette a notice of the regulations contained in any printed Roll deposited in the office of the Clerk of the Privy Council in accordance with subsection 12(1).

15 [Repealed, 2000, c. 5, s. 66]

16 [Repealed, 2000, c. 5, s. 66]

Marginal note:Bound volumes

17 If the Commission has, as of a day selected by it, revised all the regulations that it is required to revise under section 10 to that day, it shall cause the Revised Regulations to be published in the form of bound volumes, and the regulations to be included in them shall be those that have been revised as of that day, and that day shall be indicated in each of the volumes.

Marginal note:Old regulations not revived

• 18 (1) The repeal of the regulations and parts of regulations listed in the schedule appended to a Roll does not

  • (a) revive any regulation or part of any regulation so repealed;

  • (b) affect any saving clause in the regulations or parts of regulations so repealed; or

  • (c) prevent the application of any of those regulations or parts of regulations, or of any regulation or any part of a regulation formerly in force, to any transaction, matter or thing before the repeal to which they would otherwise apply.

• Marginal note:Not new law

  (2) A regulation included in the Revised Regulations shall not be held to operate as a new regulation, but shall be construed and have effect as a consolidation and as declaratory of the law as contained in the regulation and parts of regulations as revised, and for which the regulation included in the Revised Regulations is substituted.

• Marginal note:Where revision differs

  (3) Where, on any point, the provisions of a regulation included in the Revised Regulations are not in effect the same as those of the repealed provisions for which they are substituted, in respect of all transactions, matters and things subsequent to the time when the regulation included in the Revised Regulations takes effect, the provisions contained in that regulation prevail, but in respect of all transactions, matters and things before that time, the repealed provisions prevail.

• Marginal note:Construction of references

  (4) A reference in any regulation remaining in force and not revised, or in any instrument or document, to any regulation or part of a regulation repealed under subsection 13(3) by inclusion in the Revised Regulations shall, after the regulation in the Revised Regulations takes effect, be deemed, in respect of any subsequent transaction, matter or thing, to be a reference to the regulation or part of a regulation in the Revised Regulations having the same effect as the repealed regulation or part of a regulation.

Marginal note:Effect of inclusion in schedule

• 19 (1) The inclusion of any regulation or part of a regulation in the schedule appended to a Roll shall not be considered to be a declaration that the regulation or part was or was not in force immediately before the coming into force of the portion of the Revised Regulations that includes that regulation or part.

• Marginal note:Paragraph 16(3)(b) Statutory Instruments Act

  (2) The whole or any part of the Revised Regulations shall be construed to be a revision of regulations referred to in paragraph 16(3)(b) of the Statutory Instruments Act.

• Marginal note:Scrutiny Committees of Parliament

  (3) A regulation that is included in the Consolidated Regulations of Canada, 1978 or in the Revised Regulations stands permanently referred to any Committee or Committees of Parliament established under section 19 of the Statutory Instruments Act.

Marginal note:Citation of Revised Regulations

• 20 (1) Any regulation included in the Revised Regulations may be cited and referred to in any Act, regulation, proceeding, instrument or document whatever either by its short or long title or by using the expression “Revised Regulations of Canada, chapter ”, or “Revised Regulations, chapter ”, or “Chapter of the Revised Regulations”, or the abbreviation “R.R.C., c. ”, adding in each case the number of the particular chapter.

• Marginal note:Amendments included

  (2) The citation of any chapter of the Revised Regulations in accordance with subsection (1) is deemed to include any amendments made after the publication of that regulation in the Revised Regulations.

Marginal note:Electronic publishing

• 21 (1) The Queen’s Printer may publish an edition of the Revised Regulations in electronic form and every copy of a revised regulation published in electronic form by the Queen’s Printer is evidence of that regulation and of its contents, and every copy purporting to be published by the Queen’s Printer is deemed to be so published, unless the contrary is shown.

• Marginal note:Inconsistencies in regulations

  (2) In the event of an inconsistency between a revised regulation published by the Queen’s Printer in electronic form and the original of the regulation as printed in the Roll deposited in the office of the Clerk of the Privy Council under section 12, the original of the regulation prevails to the extent of the inconsistency.

Marginal note:Request to remake regulations

• 22 (1) If the Clerk of the Privy Council, after consultation with the Deputy Minister of Justice, is of the opinion that any particular regulations should be remade by the regulation-making authority instead of being revised under this Act, the Clerk of the Privy Council may request that authority or any person acting on behalf of that authority to make new regulations.

• Marginal note:Failure to comply with request

  (2) Where any authority or person referred to in subsection (1) fails to comply within a reasonable time with a request made pursuant to that subsection, the Governor in Council may, by order, direct that authority or person to comply with the request within such period of time as he may specify in the order.

Marginal note:Indices

23 The Commission may cause indices to the Revised Regulations to be prepared and published for the convenience of the public.

Marginal note:Citation of Consolidated Regulations, 1978

• 24 (1) Any regulation included in the Consolidated Regulations of Canada, 1978 may be cited and referred to in any Act, regulation, proceeding, instrument or document whatever either by its short or long title or by using the expression “Consolidated Regulations of Canada, chapter ”, or “Consolidated Regulations, chapter ”, or “Chapter of the Consolidated Regulations”, or the abbreviation “C.R.C., c. ”, adding in each case the number of the particular chapter.

• Marginal note:Amendments included

  (2) The citation of any chapter of the Consolidated Regulations of Canada, 1978 in accordance with subsection (1) is deemed to include any amendments made after the publication of that regulation in the Consolidated Regulations of Canada, 1978.

PART IIIConsolidated Statutes and Regulations of Canada

Interpretation

Marginal note:Definitions

25 The definitions in this section apply in this Part.

consolidated regulations

 consolidated regulations means the consolidated regulations of Canada maintained by the Minister under this Part. (règlements codifiés)

consolidated statutes

 consolidated statutes means the consolidated statutes of Canada maintained by the Minister under this Part. (lois codifiées)

Consolidation of the Statutes and Regulations

Marginal note:Authority to maintain

26 The Minister may maintain a consolidation of the public statutes of Canada and a consolidation of the regulations of Canada.

Marginal note:Powers of Minister

27 In maintaining a consolidation of the statutes or regulations, the Minister may

• (a) omit any Act or regulation, or any part of an Act or a regulation, that has expired, has been repealed or has had its effect;

• (b) include historical references or other information that enhances the value of the consolidation;

• (c) correct grammatical and typographical errors without changing the substance of any enactment; and

• (d) set out as a separate Act or regulation any Act or regulation enacted by another Act or regulation.

Publication and Distribution

Marginal note:Authority to publish

• 28 (1) The Minister may cause the consolidated statutes or consolidated regulations to be published in printed or electronic form, and in any manner and frequency that the Minister considers appropriate.

• Marginal note:Differences in form

  (2) A publication in an electronic form may differ from a publication in another form to accommodate the needs of the electronic form if the differences do not change the substance of any enactment.

Marginal note:Free distribution

29 Copies of the consolidated statutes and consolidated regulations must be distributed without charge to the persons or classes of persons, and in the form and manner, that the Governor in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister, directs.

Effect of Consolidation

Marginal note:Consolidation not new law

30 The consolidated statutes and consolidated regulations do not operate as new law.

Marginal note:Published consolidation is evidence

• 31 (1) Every copy of a consolidated statute or consolidated regulation published by the Minister under this Act in either print or electronic form is evidence of that statute or regulation and of its contents and every copy purporting to be published by the Minister is deemed to be so published, unless the contrary is shown.

• Marginal note:Inconsistencies in Acts

  (2) In the event of an inconsistency between a consolidated statute published by the Minister under this Act and the original statute or a subsequent amendment as certified by the Clerk of the Parliaments under the Publication of Statutes Act, the original statute or amendment prevails to the extent of the inconsistency.

• Marginal note:Inconsistencies in regulations

  (3) In the event of an inconsistency between a consolidated regulation published by the Minister under this Act and the original regulation or a subsequent amendment as registered by the Clerk of the Privy Council under the Statutory Instruments Act, the original regulation or amendment prevails to the extent of the inconsistency.

Co-publishing Agreements

Marginal note:Agreements

32 The Minister may enter into agreements for the production of the consolidated statutes or consolidated regulations and for their publication, sale or distribution.