How Bills Become Acts: Electronic Version

If you need help, please contact Yolanda Koscielski, Liaison Librarian for Criminology, Engineering, and Computing Science at 778.782.3315 or ysk6@sfu.ca or Ask a librarian.

Last Updated June, 2006

The following is a brief guide to the parliamentary workings in regard to bills. If you have further questions, contact a librarian at: Ask a Librarian.

Here is an brief outline of the progress of bills through Parliament.

For ONLINE information on bills use LEGISinfo: an essential research tool for finding information on legislation currently before Parliament.

The Hansard Index is the key to information about what is said by Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, organized by subject. A print version of the Hansard is available in the Bennett Library at call# J 103 C1. It covers the years 1867 - 1993. The online Hansard Index starts with the 35th Parliament in 1994.

1) First reading The introduction of a bill in the House of Commons. Printed but not debated. Numbered in three sequences.
 

Print Information

• House of Commons Bills, first reading (Bennett KE 68 C25) 1977 - 2002 on the regular library shelves , earlier years (back to 1968/69) in the Lam Collection under the same call number.

2) Second Reading The principle of the bill is debated with the speeches recorded in Hansard. At the conclusion of the debate, a vote to "approve the bill in principle" is taken. If favourable, the bill is referred to a Commons Committee; if not, the bill "dies."

Print Information

• Hansard (J 103 C1)

3) Bills Committee Stage The committee may be standing (i.e. permanent), special, or joint. Most second reading bills will be sent to a standing committee for review and possible changes or amendments. The committee's minutes of proceedings and evidence records submissions (from individuals or organizations) and evidence from any witnesses called. They are found in the Library catalogue under author, e.g. Canada. Parliament. House of Commons. Standing Committee on Communications. Minutes...

NOTE: One way to find committee reports in the catalogue when you do not have the precise name of the committee is to use the fact that all committee reports bear the following title: Minutes of proceedings and evidence. Use this fact to carry out a quick and dirty KEYWORD search of the catalogue as follows:

Canada proceedings evidence

use these three words and then another word from the name of the committee (if known) or a substantive word from the likely name of the committee (if not known). This search strategy should be sufficient to produce a reasonably short list of committee reports in the catalogue without going to the extent of typing in the full name of the committee which can be a lengthy and mistake prone process.

Committees of the House of Commons Homepage

Committees: A Practical Guide

4) Bills Report stage The report is included in the committee's minutes of proceedings and evidence and may be found in the catalogue under author as noted above.

5) Third Reading Usually with little or no debate the Commons votes upon the bill in its revised form. If rejected, the bill "dies." If accepted, the bill has "passed the House", is printed in its amended state "as passed" and goes to the Senate.


Print Information

• House of Commons. Bills as passed (Bennett KE 68 C25).
• Canada legislative index (Bennett Reference KE 72 C35 1986 - )

6) Bills Senate The bill as passed must be "read" three times in the Senate. It is not reprinted.

7) Royal Assent Once passed by both Houses, the Governor-General gives royal assent. The bill is now an act, and is printed in the Canada Gazette Part III

Print Information

• Canada legislative index (Bennett Reference KE 72 C35 1986- )
• Canada Gazette Part III (Bennett Reference KE 89 C3423)

8) Acts The bill number ceases to have meaning. As an act, it is renumbered, becoming a chapter in the volume of acts or statutes produced by that particular session of Parliament. The text of the act is first printed in an issue of the Canada Gazette Part III and later reprinted in the annual volume of the Statutes of Canada.

Proclamation

Unless otherwise specified in the act, the act comes into force (i.e. is proclaimed) when it receives royal assent. If the act (or certain sections of the act) comes into force on a later date, the proclamation is printed in the Canada Gazette Part I (Periodical Room).

Other Bill Information

Bills and their Numbering

Each session of Parliament begins a brand new numbering system so that Bill C-25 will be found in every session of the federal parliament which produced that number of bills. This bill numbering system is only useful during the "current" session although the SFU catalogue contains many entries for bills and some related material under the bill number. You can get to this material through the SFU Library Catalogue by searching under Title for Bill C 46. Note that this search will produce information about a variety of Bill C 46s because each session of parliament will have such a bill. We have only been entering this information in the catalogue for the last few years. In some cases this procedure will produce the committee reports dealing with the bill but you should not rely on this relatively simple method because it only covers a limited minority of the bills which have passed through the federal parliament.

Here is a description of the various bills which the federal government deals with:

• Bills
• Bills are draft Acts of Parliament which are published and circulated under the authority of the House.
• Government Bills
• Public bills sponsored by the Government. which may originate in either the House of Commons or the Senate. They are numbered from C-1 to C-200. Government Bills which originate in the Senate have an "S" preceding the number of the Bill.
• Private Members' Public Bills
• Those that originate in the House of Commons are numbered from C-201 to C-1000. Those that originate in the Senate have an "S" preceding the number of the Bill.

• Private Bills
• These bills are sponsored by Members of Parliament and concern matters of a particular interest or benefit to a person or persons. Bills which originate in the House of Commons are numbered in sequence, starting with C-1001, while those which originate in the Senate have "S" preceding the number of the Bills

---

Parliamentary Links

How Canadians Govern Themselves This is an comprehensive look at Canadian Parliament by Senator Eugene Forsey. You can also download the book in PDF.

Parliamentary Research Branch Publications The Parliamentary Research Branch (PRB) provides a consulting service for individual parliamentarians, responding to questions that require research and analysis on legal, economic, scientific, or social science matters. Researchers obtain and analyze material, and write letters, short notes and longer research papers at the request of Senators and Members of the House of Commons.

Policy Formation

The use of "discussion" papers, green or white papers, appears to have diminished in recent years. You may check for "white paper" or "green paper" and another subject word (defence or foreign or taxation or aboriginal) in the Canadian Research Index or CBCA Complete

The period up to 1986/1987 is covered in these two publications:

• Green Papers. 1971-1986.  (Bennett Reference  JL 161 Z969)

• A statement of proposals to invite public discussion and comment prior to policy formation. Sometimes called discussion paper or other titles. The title "Green paper on ..." may or may not appear.

• White Papers. 1939-1987.  (Bennett Reference JL 161 Z9692)

Official documents explaining government policy. May follow from discussion of a green paper. The words "White paper on ..." may or may not appear as part of the title.

In many ways the Canada legislative index (Bennett Reference KE 72 C35 1986-) is the best source for checking the progress of bills through the legislative process. This index provides page numbers and dates for the discussions which appear in Hansard.