The Canada Gazette is an official publication by the government of Canada

Government of Canada

The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...

 that publishes all law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

s and Orders in Council issued by the government. It also contains other information on things such as hearing and tribunals, proposed changes and any thing else the government feels should be told to the public in the time period stated in the Statutory Instruments Regulations. It is administered by Public Works and Government Services Canada

Public Works and Government Services Canada

Public Works and Government Services Canada is the department of the government of Canada with responsibility for the government's internal servicing and administration....

 by the Queen's Printer

Queen's Printer

The Queen's Printer is a position defined by letters patent under the royal prerogative in various Commonwealth realms...

 since 1841.

The Gazette is not widely read with only some media

News media

The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...

, government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

, and businesses paying close attention. It is important, however, as once a law or regulation is noted in the Gazette, ignorance of it is no longer a legal defence.

Canada's provinces all have their own versions of the Gazette.

The Gazette is published in three parts:

Part 1

Part I is published each Saturday. It contains public notices, official appointments and proposed regulations, as well as miscellaneous notices from the private sector that are required to be published by federal statute or by regulations. The proposed regulations are published in Part I as a way for the public to comment on them.

Part 2

Part II is published every second Wednesday and it contains all regulations that have been enacted as well as statutory instruments and other documents, such as orders in council, orders and proclamations. It has a consolidated index of regulations dating since January 1, 1955.

Part 3

Part III is published with the text of any new laws immediately after they have received Royal Assent

Royal Assent

The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...

 and was first published in 1974. Starting from January 1998 all publications other than Part III are available in HTML

HTML

HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....

 and are not official. From April 1, 2003, the PDF version is an official version, as it is marked up from the same file as the printed version. It also contains a list of the proclamations of Canada and orders in council relating to the coming into force of federal acts.

External links

• Official website (with all copies online from 1998 onwards)
• Canada Gazette 1841 - 1997
• Canada Gazette June 1868 - December 1878