Tuesday, July 29, 2008

A Nation's Chronicle: The Canada Gazette

The Canada Gazette has been published in Canada for more than 160 years. It is the known as "the official newspaper of the Government of Canada", for it has "informed Canadians of the operations of government and encouraged them to participate in the legislature process."

In other words, in it are published new statutes and regulations, proposed regulations, decisions of administrative boards, and an assortment of government notices.

The Canada Gazette (from 1841 to 1997) will, over the next few years, be made available online. You will be able to "keyword' search of all the content of the Canada Gazette.

Right now, the database is of 30% (300,000) of the pages in Canada Gazette and by 2009 all of the pages will be on the Internet.

It is divided into three parts -

Part I - 1983-1997 - Contains all public notices, appointments and proposed Regulations from the government, and it is published every Saturday.

Part II - 1950-1976 - It contains all proclamations and order-in-council. It is published every other Wednesday.

Part III - 1983-1997 - This section contains all Acts of Parliament, and it is published as soon as possible after the act is given Royal Assent.

Issues of the Canada Gazette after 1997 are available online at the website of the Canada Gazette Directorate at <canadagazette.gc.ca/index-e.html>.

The Canada Gazette is a project funded by the Canadian Culture Online program of the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Gazette Directorate.

It is available at <www.collectionscanada.gc.on/canada-gazette>.