LibGuides: Government Documents: Frequently Requested Links

Links

Canada Gazette Home Page
Search this site for editions 1998 to present. Also has link to archived issues for editions published between 1841 and 1997.
Canadian Municipal Collection (Cities and Towns)
"The Canadian Municipal Collection (cities and towns) brings local Canadian government documents in one place by making them digitally accessible to the public and discoverable at the individual municipal level. Documents in this collection cover the out-of-copyright run from 1868; and cover the cities and towns of Ontario such as Kitchener, North York, Toronto, Hamilton, Kingsville, and Renfrew.
Documents from municipalities of the other Canadian provinces will be added to the project should funding is available."
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Via the Internet Archive.
Commissions of Inquiry / Canada
Fom the site: "Commissions of Inquiry are established by the Governor in Council (Cabinet) to fully and impartially investigate issues of national importance...."
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"...Although Canadians are perhaps most familiar with ‘Royal Commissions', there are several different kinds of Commissions of Inquiry.
These can be established under either Part I or Part II of the Inquiries Act, or any one of 87 or more federal statutes.
The mandate of a Commission of Inquiry depends on the nature of the issue to be considered.
Advisory Commissions – usually have a broad mandate. This is to ensure that commissioners consider all options and consult all parties with an interest in the matter.
Investigative Commissions – usually have a more specific, focused mandate...."
Debates of the Senate of Canada 1867-1996
Debates of the Senate 1996-present
Dimensions of Poverty Hub
Includes links to Access to health care, Food insecurity, Income inequality, Literacy, Low income, Minimum wage or low-paid work. Also has information on Canada's official poverty line, and Canada's official poverty dashboard ("...12 indicators to track progress on deep income poverty as well as the aspects of poverty other than income, including indicators of material deprivation, lack of opportunity and resilience....")
Documents on Canadian External Relations (DCER) series - Global Affaires Canada
From the website: "Represents the basic published record of the foreign policy and foreign relations of the Government of Canada, and provides a comprehensive, self-contained record of Canada's major foreign policy decisions and their underlying rationale."
House of Commons Debates 1867-1996
House of Commons: Hansard Index (and links) from 17 January 1994 to 29 November 2005
Select a session or date range from the top scale. An alphabetized Table of Contents will appear. Locate an entry. Click. The entries within that category will appear. Numbered links (when available) will appear at the end of each entry. Click the link to connect.
House of Commons: Publications Search (Hansard, Committee, Journals...)
"This search tool offers multiple possibilities to access and share information from the House Debates (Hansard), Committee Evidence and the Journals dating back to September 2001. "
House of Commons - Our Procedure
An explanation of the work, legislative process, procedures, parliamentary cycle, and publications of the House of Commons.
LEGISinfo
This collaborative effort of the Senate, the House of Commons and the Library of Parliament includes details on the passage of the bill through the Senate and House of Commons, the text of the bill as introduced at First Reading and its most recent version if it is amended during the legislative process, votes, major speeches at second reading, coming into force data, legislative summaries from the Parliamentary Information and Research Service of the Library of Parliament, and government press releases and backgrounders (for government bills).
lipad/ The Linked Parliamentary Data Project/begins 1901
Search Canadian Hansard from 1901 to present.
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"...In 2013, a group of political scientists, computer scientists, and historians teamed up at the University of Toronto to solve this problem. With support from the SSHRC, the NSERC, the Digging into Data initiative, the Library of Parliament, Library and Archives Canada, Canadiana.org, and Michael Mulley at openparliament.ca, a key output of this collaboration is the first machine-readable and fully searchable historical Hansard. We have linked to these data to various biographical properties of parliamentarians, including their party and gender. This corpus underpins the search interface of this website...."
Open Government portal
Federal Government open data/open information/open dialogue.
Orders in Council /Canada 1990 - present
Orders in Council / Canada archived: 1867 - 1924
There also is an option to search for Orders in Council at the Canada Gazette site (1998 -present) [See the first link at the top of this list]. From the Main Page, under the search box, click on "Advanced Search". Find "Search Under / all categories". Click the dropdown arrow and then select "Part 1: Orders in Council".

Parliament of Canada - Main Page
Parliament of Canada: Departments and Commttees
Site is divided into 3 parts:
Departments and Roles: 1867 - Today
(information on the current Cabinet membership, Parliamentary Secretaries and Opposition Party Critics.)
Parliamentary Committee Membership (lists the members of parliamentary committees since 1867.)
Substantive Committee Reports (lists the substantive reports of the committees of the Senate and the House of Commons, and the interim and final reports of special committees from 1867 to the current Parliament.)
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For example, to identify the names of a specific federal government department, go to the section titled Departments and Roles: 1867 - Today
Click & open the Parliament of your choice. Find the department you want, and if there is an option for a Profile with it, click there. Preceding and Succeeding names of the department, and additional information, will be listed, as well as available links to information about them.
Parlinfo
"Welcome to Parlinfo, your resource for information and data on the important events and people that shaped Parliament from 1867 to today."
Note: there's a keyword site search option at the bottom of the page.
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Sections for People, Parliament, Departments and Committees, Political Parties, Legislation, and Elections and Ridings.
Public Opinion Research Reports (PORR)
"This website publishes and provides access to POR projects that were submitted to LAC electronically and that were contracted by Government of Canada organizations as of August 1, 2006." For specific information re the content of this site, see the FAQ link at the site.
Royal Commissions and Commissions of Inquiry, 1792-1991
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"...Royal Commissions and Commissions of Inquiry for the Provinces of Upper Canada, Canada and Ontario 1792 to 1991: A Checklist of Reports...This checklist records the reports of commissions published by the Province of Upper Canada (1792-1841), by the Province of Canada (1841-1867) and by the Province of Ontario (1867-1991)...."
The distribution of legislative powers : an overview / Isabelle Brideau, Laurence Brosseau.
Canada, Library of Parliament and Parliamentary Information and Research Service. 16 October 2019
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"This background paper focuses on the distribution of legislative powers between Parliament and the provincial legislatures in selected areas. First, it briefly describes the provisions of the Constitution Act, 1867 that concern legislative powers. Second, it examines how certain powers were assigned to the appropriate level of government in light of the interpretive principles established by the courts"
Treaties, laws and regulations
Sections: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canada Gazette, Laws and Regulations by department or agency, International Treaties, Government Bills, Laws and Regulations, Treaties with Indigenous peoples, Federal Regulatory Management
Treaties (International) / Global Affairs Canada
Searchable database for international treaties of Canada/ some fulltext.
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Searches for bilateral, multilateral, and/or plurilateral international treaties by text, subjects, or keywords.
Also links to other information about treaties.

Subject Guide

Marian Ramage

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