Law Resources: The Basics: Legislation Collection

What is it?

Legislation (also known as laws, acts or statutes) is the law made up by parliament or a legislature. It is made to create new laws or update existing ones.

"There are three different types of legislation: statutes, regulations and bylaws, all have the force of law, but each are enacted differently."

Statutes: "Are publicly debated by the federal parliament or provincial legislatures and voted upon before coming into force. Statutes state the broad principles or rules that govern our lives."

Regulations and Bylaws: "Are the details that operationalize and allow for implementation of the statute. Regulations are created by federal or provincial bodies, and Bylaws are created by municipal bodies."

"For example, a motor vehicle statute may state there will be a maximum speed limit. The regulations under that might state the actual what the actual limit is."

"Regulations and bylaws are "delegated legislation; " the power to enact regulations is delegated by statute to a particular minister, or to cabinet or to an administrative body."

References

Bora Laskin Law Library

Federal (available in print and online)

How to use it:

Federal legislation (acts, statutes, laws) is commonly known as the Statutes of Canada.
They are a compilation of all the federal laws in Canada passed by the Parliament of Canada since Confederation in 1867.
Revisions to federal legislation takes place every 15 to 30 years to consolidate all amendments to the legislation since the last revision. The last revision was done in 1985.

How to access it:

Online versions of these titles can be searched using the databases listed on the right.
For print versions of these titles, portions can be requested via Scan and Send service.
For help finding these titles, please email library.services@usask.ca.

Scan request

Provincial (available in print and online)

How to use it:

Provincial legislation (acts, statutes, laws) are laws made by parliament or a legislature.
Provincial regulations are made in accordance with the legislation and are for the purpose of carrying out the provisions in the legislation.

How to access it:

Online versions of these titles can be searched using the databases listed on the right.
For print versions of these titles, portions can be requested via Scan and Send service.
For help finding these titles, please email library.services@usask.ca.

Scan request

Further information

Please check out our Legislation Research Guide for:

Finding Bills
Historic Legislation
Books and ebooks
Articles

Legislation Research Guide
The Legislation Research Guide provides a list of all the various resources the University Library subscribes to, as well as free legal resources.

Online Access

CANLII
CanLii provides free access to legal cases, legislation and commentary across all Canadian provinces.
Law Society of Saskatchewan
The Law Society of Saskatchewan provides free access to cases, articles, sentencing ranges, forms and precedents, legislation and ebooks.
LEGISinfo
Research tool for finding information on legislation before Parliament.
Justice Laws Website
Online source of the consolidated Acts and regulations of Canada. The consolidations are generally updated every two weeks.
WestlawNext Canada
WestlawNext Canada is only accessible to current students and faculty of the College of Law. A registration key and password are required to access this resources.

Lexis+
Lexis+ is available to all current students, faculty and staff of USask. It contains legislation across all Canadian provinces.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.
HeinOnline
Canadian legislation in PDF format.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.
Canada Statute Service
Includes the consolidated 1985 Revised Statutes of Canada, plus any new Acts (excluding the Income Tax Act), with a complete amendment history for each statute; all Regulations from the 1978 consolidation, plus any new Regulations.
Access is restricted to current students, faculty, and staff of the University of Saskatchewan, and walk-in users, for educational, research, and non-commercial personal use. Systematic copying or downloading of electronic resource content is not permitted by Canadian and international copyright law.

Canada Gazette

The Canada Gazette is the official newspaper of the Government of Canada. You can learn about new statutes, new and proposed regulations, administrative board decisions and public notices. Find out how government departments, businesses and other Canadian organizations can publish their public notices.

For print versions of this title, portions can be requested via Scan and Send service.

Provincial Gazettes

Provincial gazettes are a tool to communicated messages of provincial importance. They contain official government and public notices, orders in council and those private notices required to be published by legislation.

Online versions of these titles can be searched using CANLII listed in Online Access.
For provincial gazettes not available online, portions can be requested via Scan and Send service.