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| Web Sites of Government
Departments, Agencies, etc. |
| A standard feature of official federal
government web sites is the "What's New" section, most also
have news releases, and frequently the latest news item will
be featured on the home page as well. Link to the official web
sites of federal government departments, agencies, Crown
corporations, programs and major subject portals through the
federal government's official site, the Canada
Site. The following are additional sources for keeping
up with changes in the federal government: |
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Consulting With Canadians. http://www.consultingcanadians.gc.ca |
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Government policies under development may be outlined in a discussion paper or consultation document with input sought from the public before they are implemented. This web site provides a single access point to most of the current and some past federal government consultations. The site has a calendar showing end dates for current consultations and ongoing ones. Consultations are searchable by subject, department or agency and keyword. |
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Government Announcements. Canada
Site. http://canada.gc.ca/whats/feature/feature_e.html
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Programs and services that have been announced
on television, in print or on the radio within the last month
are featured here with links to additional information. |
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What's New. Canada Site. http://canada.gc.ca/whats/whatsnew_e.html
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This section of the Canada site brings
together several features to help keep up with government
news: It links to all "what's new" pages of federal government
web sites by date and by department; to a select list of
federal daily and weekly bulletins, to consultation pages,
events listings, and news releases. |
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| Federal News Releases |
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Canada Gazette. (Pt. I: weekly,
PartII: biweekly, Part III: irregular) http://canadagazette.gc.ca/index-e.html
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The Canada Gazette has been the
official news bulletin of the Government of Canada since 1841.
It has been used to issue official proclamations of war and
peace, to call federal elections, to publish constitutional
amendments, and to open and close sessions of Parliament. It
contains all formal public notices and official appointments
and private sector notices required by law to be published
here. It also includes proposed regulations, giving the public
30 days or so to comment, and newly passed Acts and
regulations.
- Part I: Proposed regulations, official appointments
& other formal public notices.
- Part II: New regulations & other statutory
instruments, orders and proclamations.
- Part III: Most new acts and their enactment
proclamations.
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Federal Government News Releases (a.k.a. "Canada News Centre"). Canada Site. http://news.gc.ca
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Each day's Government of Canada news releases
are posted here along with the day's warnings and advisories,
media advisories, speeches and reports, if any. There is also
a keyword searchable database of previous federal news
releases (from 2002 on but incomplete). You can also subscribe to the RSS newsfeed.
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| E-Mail Lists |
| Many government departments, agencies, boards,
commissions, centres, specific programs, web portals, etc.
have mailing lists to inform interested members of the public
of new developments either with their programs and services or
just on their web sites. Some of these lists provide the same
information as is available on their web sites under "What's
New" or as news releases, some are much more elaborate
resembling newsletters or magazines. By subscribing to these
lists you will get any updates automatically by e-mail. Some
examples: |
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E-Mail Notification Services. Canada Site. http://canada.gc.ca/form/emailnotif_e.html
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Links to many federal government email list sign-up pages.
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Elections Canada On-Line Subscription
Service. http://www.elections.ca/
Select "Media", then "Subscription Service".
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Subscribe to this service to receive notice of
new Elections Canada information on Federal Representation
2004, official reports, press releases, statements and
speeches. |
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Statistics Canada's The Daily. http://www.statcan.ca/english/dai-quo/subs.htm
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The Daily provides the first look at
newly released statistics by Statistics Canada. You can
receive the Table of Contents with links to all articles or
select the subject(s) of interest to you and receive only new
product release announcements and links to articles relevant
to those subjects. RSS newsfeed also available. |
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| In Parliament |
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Parliamentary Proceedings
The Parliamentary Internet http://www.parl.gc.ca/ is the official
Parliament of Canada web site where the best sources of
current information on Parliament are available to everyone.
The following are examples of some of the tools available to
find out what is coming up in Parliament (calendar, notice of
meetings, etc.) what is going on now (live, when Parliament is
in session), what has just recently happened, and the status
of proposed legislation (bills), listed in roughly that order.
For details and background info. on the Parliamentary
process, see sources listed under "General Facts about Canadian Government & Politics" in Part 2:
Clarification and Direction.
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House of Commons Calendar. http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/process/house/calendar/calpre-e.htm
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This calendar of sitting days for the upcoming
year is drawn up each year before the end of September. The
calendar applies only when the House is in session and can be
altered. A tentative calendar for the next five years is also
here. |
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Senate Calendar. http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/process/seante/calendar/cal2007-e.htm |
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Indicates fixed and possible sitting days. |
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Order Paper and Notice Paper. http://www.parl.gc.ca/
Select "Chamber Business" for access to the House of Commons and Senate versions. |
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The Order Paper is published for each
day the House of Commons and Senate are in session. It is the
official agenda, listing all items of business for that
sitting including the text of any written questions for Question Period. The Notice Paper is to provide 48-hour notice
of any items Members or Senators wish to introduce. |
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Projected Order of Business. House of Commons. http://www.parl.gc.ca/
Select "Chamber Business", then "House of Commons - Chamber Business Home". |
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This is an unofficial outline of the expected
order of business in the House of Commons for each sitting
day. It includes details such as the time allowed for each
issue. |
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Schedule of Committee Meetings. http://www.parl.gc.ca/
Select "Committee Business". See "Schedule" or "Notices" of
Meetings under Senate, House and Joint Committees. |
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Schedules of all active committees are
provided when Parliament is in session. |
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Webcast Schedule. http://www.parl.gc.ca/
Select "Webcast". |
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Some committee proceedings and (since Feb.
2004) House of Commons Chamber proceedings are webcast in
audio or audio-video allowing you to listen in or watch the
proceedings live on your computer. (You will need a sound card
and speakers. Windows Media Player software is available on
the site for downloading.) The schedule of upcoming webcast
meetings is here as is the webcast link. |
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CPAC Live Coverage. Cable Public
Affairs Channel. http://www.cpac.ca/ |
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CPAC, a non-profit, non-commercial programming
service provides bilingual public affairs television and
Internet programming 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. You can
see live coverage of the House of Commons whenever it is in
session as well as selected House and Senate committees,
public hearings, speeches, and related events. Today's and the
upcoming week's program schedule is available on the web site.
You can subscribe to get daily updates by email on general program highlights or just for specific topics. If you missed a broadcast, tapes can be ordered.
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Debates or The Official Report
of Debates a.k.a. Hansard. http://www.parl.gc.ca/
Select "Chamber Business". |
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The official report of the
debates in the House of Commons and Senate is a verbatim
report, capturing everything said. It is published the next
day, or within 48 hours, after each sitting day. Includes "Question Period", 45 minutes of each day in the House of Commons is given over to questions from any MP addressed to the government. These are often on current topics in the news. (They are indicated in the Debates and indexes as 'o.q' for Oral Questions.) |
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Journals. http://www.parl.gc.ca/
Select "Chamber Business". |
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These are the minutes of the proceedings in
the House and Senate, showing in brief entries what
transpired, e.g. motions moved, by whom, petitions presented,
titles of bills considered, votes of Members on issues, list
of reports presented, etc. The House and Senate
Journals are available the day after the sitting.
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Committee Meeting Evidence and Minutes of
Proceedings. http://www.parl.gc.ca/
Select "Committee Business". |
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The Minutes of Proceedings are like the
Journals, recording what took place in committee
meetings. They may also include the text of committee reports.
The Evidence is a verbatim transcript, like the
Debates, of public committee meetings. These can take
up to two weeks to appear on the Parliamentary web site.
(Unedited copies of testimony to Senate committees can be
received sooner by e-mail: Contact information is provided on
Senate committee web pages.) |
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Proposed Legislation
Bills are
legislation in the making and the process of bills becoming
law often involves interesting debate and study. These are
recorded and available to researchers. The following are some
basics about bills.
Note: Proposed and newly passed regulations and new acts
are published in the Canada Gazette. See "Federal
Government News Releases" above.
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Bills. Parliament of Canada. http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/bills.asp?Language=E
Federal bills are numbered starting over in each
session. (This is important since it means that a bill number
is not much use as a reference if you do not know in which
year or session it existed. Bill C-15, for example, will be a
different bill in each session.) The bill number starts with a
letter that shows whether it was first introduced in the House
of Commons (C), or Senate (S). Most bills are public bills,
sponsored by the government. These are numbered from 1-200
(e.g. C1-C200). Private Members' public bills are often
introduced by members of the opposition party but rarely pass
third reading. They are numbered 201-1000 (e.g. C201 - C1000).
Private bills have to do with specific organizations or
individuals and are numbered from C-1001 on. More details
about bills are available on the Parliamentary site.
Some stages a bill passes through are more interesting to
researchers than others:
1st reading: The bill is
printed, assigned a number and a date for 2nd reading is
fixed.
2nd reading: This is often the most
interesting point since the principle of the bill is debated
in the House of Commons and this debate is recorded in
Hansard. The bill can then be accepted, deferred or
rejected, and is usually referred to a committee for further
study.
Committee Stage: This is also a very
interesting point for researchers. The committee examines the
bill clause by clause, calls the sponsoring Member and often
outside experts on the subject to provide testimony on aspects
of the bill. This material is found in the committee
"Evidence".
Report Stage: The committee reports to
the House, often suggesting amendments to the bill, or the
bill can be concurred in without amendments. There is some
limited opportunity for debate at this stage.
3rd
reading: Members of the House can propose more amendments,
send the bill back to committee or pass it.
Senate
readings: Once the bill has passed three readings in the
House, it goes through a similar procedure in the Senate. It
is debated, amendments can be suggested.
Royal
Assent: Once the bill is passed in both the House and
Senate, it requires approval from the Crown (Royal Assent) to
become law. This is provided by the Governor General or a
representative. On receiving Royal Assent a bill is referred
to as an act and is soon as possible is published in the
Canada Gazette, Part III.
Coming Into Force:
A bill comes into force on the day of Royal Assent unless
specified otherwise in the text of the bill. Parts of a bill
may come into force at different times.
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Finding/Interpretive Aids: |
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Index to the Debates (Hansard
Index). http://www.parl.gc.ca/
Select "Chamber Business" then "House of Commons - Chamber Business Home", then select: "Search and browse the Debates by Subject". |
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This can be very useful to search by topic if
you don't know the bill number or title. |
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Status of House Business. (House of Commons) http://www.parl.gc.ca/
Select "Bills".
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Bills are listed in order by number. If you
don't know the number you can use the "Find" button on your
Internet browser to search for a keyword from the title of the
bill, or scroll to find it.
For each bill, the cumulative
information is provided on where it stands in the process of
becoming law (e.g. dates of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd readings,
referral to committee, whether it passed, received Royal
Assent, etc.) Note these dates, committees, etc. for
continuing your research (e.g. See the Debates on the date of
the second reading for detailed discussion of the bill in the
House of Commons. Check also the committee proceedings and
evidence for the detailed discussion of the bill in committee,
if it was referred to one, etc.)
Click on the bill number
link to see the full text of the bill in its various forms,
and evidence of Royal Assent, if it got that far. |
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Progress of Legislation. (Senate)
http://www.parl.gc.ca/
Select "Bills". |
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As for the House, cumulative information on
the stages the bill has passed through are shown. To link to
the text of the bill return to the "Bills" page. |
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LEGISINFO. Library of Parliament.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISINFO/
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This is a terrific research tool for
researching bills. Search for the bill by keyword in title or
bill number and you will get the text of the bill, major
speeches in Parliament (usually from 2nd reading in the House
and Senate), the status of the bill, recorded votes, if any,
coming into force information, press releases or background
information from the related government department, a
legislative summary, and a list or links to further reading or
related web sites. Includes bills from 2001 on only. Also has an RSS feed for additions to the site.
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Legislative Summaries. Library of
Parliament, Parliamentary Research Branch. |
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Brief guides to legislation, usually providing
a history of the legislation, background information,
description and analysis, etc. to help understand the bill and
related topics.
(For more details see - Part2 -
"Parliamentary & Legislative Research Papers" in Overview
& Background Info.) |
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