1. e-Laws Journey (www.e-laws.gov.on.ca)
June 13, 2016
Who’s already seen this?

2. JG Agenda Background Before and After Lessons Learned What’s Next
Discussion JG

3. Background – e-Official Ontario laws
e-Laws is the Ontario government website containing Ontario’s statutes and regulations.
Statutes and regulations on e-Laws are “official” copies of Ontario’s laws, just like statutes printed by the Queen’s Printer and regulations printed in The Ontario Gazette are.
Being “official” means that each statute and regulation on e-Laws is to be considered an accurate statement of the law unless the contrary is proved. JG

4. Background – e-Laws Content
Until 1990, Ontario officially consolidated its print statutes and regulations every 10 years. The last official print consolidation occurred in 1990 and resulted in the Revised Statutes of Ontario, 1990 (R.S.O. 1990) and the Revised Regulations of Ontario, 1990 (R.R.O. 1990). Revised laws legally replaced all pre-existing source law and became a new starting point for Ontario law.
e-Laws includes all:
Consolidated statutes that were in the R.S.O or were enacted after 1990
Consolidated regulations that were in the R.R.O or were filed after 1990
Source statutes enacted since 2000
Source regulations filed since 2000

5. Background – e-Laws Content (cont.)
English Files:
4,000 consolidated statute and regulation files
8,787 source law statute and regulation files
16,000 point in time consolidated files
French Files:
2,259 consolidated statute and regulation files
3,175 source law statute and regulation files
9, 499 point in time consolidated files

6. Background - Implementation
Old e-Laws website ( )
Developed in-house with legal and technical expertise provided by Office of Legislative Counsel staff and technical consultants
Office of Legislative Counsel controlled the look and feel of the site
Office of Legislative Counsel hosted the website on our premises for the first three years.
In 2006 site migrated to ServiceOntario shared environment, look and feel as well as technical infrastructure . JG

7. Background - Implementation
New e-Laws website (Spring Present)
Centrally controlled by Cabinet Office
Focus on public communications
Existing Ontario.ca look and technical infrastructure used
Website accessibility requirements addressed by Ontario.ca
Office of Legislative Counsel provided interface suggestion
Office of Legislative Counsel functioned as a content provider and subject matter expert . JG

8. Before and After Old e-Laws website
The first step was to choose the appropriate category of law from a menu.
Intention:
to go over some of the main changes to be aware of
Leave time for questions on the Leg Act and on e-Laws
Leg Act had 9 parts, the first 6 of which we’re going to review:
I: General
II: Statutes
III: Regulations
IV: Proof of Legislation
V: Change Powers
VI: Interpretation
Replacement – not strictly one to one
Concordance for Interp Part
New Annotated Leg Act: “The 2008 Annotated Ontario Legislation Act” (Sprague & de Cotret)
Also, new release of e-Laws on July 25
new look and feel (UAT)
new functions (e.g., PIT law)
HOWEVER, (although Leg Act creates framework) NOT YET OFFICIAL

9. Before and After Old e-Laws website
Second step was to choose Search or Browse option.

10. Before and After New e-Laws website https://www.ontario.ca/laws
Users get latest consolidated statutes just by accessing the URL
Intention:
to go over some of the main changes to be aware of
Leave time for questions on the Leg Act and on e-Laws
Leg Act had 9 parts, the first 6 of which we’re going to review:
I: General
II: Statutes
III: Regulations
IV: Proof of Legislation
V: Change Powers
VI: Interpretation
Replacement – not strictly one to one
Concordance for Interp Part
New Annotated Leg Act: “The 2008 Annotated Ontario Legislation Act” (Sprague & de Cotret)
Also, new release of e-Laws on July 25
new look and feel (UAT)
new functions (e.g., PIT law)
HOWEVER, (although Leg Act creates framework) NOT YET OFFICIAL

11. Before and After Old e-Laws website Large number of Legislative Tables
Tables manually formatted using MSWord
Labour intensive creation and QA process
Tables do not meet accessibility requirements

12. Before and After New e-Laws website
Fewer Tables – ex. 10 Statutes tables on old e-Law, 5 on new
Searchable
Downloadable to Excel
Created from a database

13. Before and After New e-Laws website
Easy access from a Statute to all associated Regulations
CanLII like interface
Intention:
to go over some of the main changes to be aware of
Leave time for questions on the Leg Act and on e-Laws
Leg Act had 9 parts, the first 6 of which we’re going to review:
I: General
II: Statutes
III: Regulations
IV: Proof of Legislation
V: Change Powers
VI: Interpretation
Replacement – not strictly one to one
Concordance for Interp Part
New Annotated Leg Act: “The 2008 Annotated Ontario Legislation Act” (Sprague & de Cotret)
Also, new release of e-Laws on July 25
new look and feel (UAT)
new functions (e.g., PIT law)
HOWEVER, (although Leg Act creates framework) NOT YET OFFICIAL

14. Before and After New e-Laws website Legislative history - Act Level
Legislative history – Section Level
Intention:
to go over some of the main changes to be aware of
Leave time for questions on the Leg Act and on e-Laws
Leg Act had 9 parts, the first 6 of which we’re going to review:
I: General
II: Statutes
III: Regulations
IV: Proof of Legislation
V: Change Powers
VI: Interpretation
Replacement – not strictly one to one
Concordance for Interp Part
New Annotated Leg Act: “The 2008 Annotated Ontario Legislation Act” (Sprague & de Cotret)
Also, new release of e-Laws on July 25
new look and feel (UAT)
new functions (e.g., PIT law)
HOWEVER, (although Leg Act creates framework) NOT YET OFFICIAL

15. Lessons Learned Do your homework Document your requirements
Research other sites to see what is new
Know your data
Know what is technically feasible
Document your requirements
Mandatory
Nice to Have
Be open to new ideas
Learn to compromise
Intention:
to go over some of the main changes to be aware of
Leave time for questions on the Leg Act and on e-Laws
Leg Act had 9 parts, the first 6 of which we’re going to review:
I: General
II: Statutes
III: Regulations
IV: Proof of Legislation
V: Change Powers
VI: Interpretation
Replacement – not strictly one to one
Concordance for Interp Part
New Annotated Leg Act: “The 2008 Annotated Ontario Legislation Act” (Sprague & de Cotret)
Also, new release of e-Laws on July 25
new look and feel (UAT)
new functions (e.g., PIT law)
HOWEVER, (although Leg Act creates framework) NOT YET OFFICIAL

16. What’s Next Expand new DLH scheme Link source statues to bills
RSS Feeds
Other types of linkages
Intention:
to go over some of the main changes to be aware of
Leave time for questions on the Leg Act and on e-Laws
Leg Act had 9 parts, the first 6 of which we’re going to review:
I: General
II: Statutes
III: Regulations
IV: Proof of Legislation
V: Change Powers
VI: Interpretation
Replacement – not strictly one to one
Concordance for Interp Part
New Annotated Leg Act: “The 2008 Annotated Ontario Legislation Act” (Sprague & de Cotret)
Also, new release of e-Laws on July 25
new look and feel (UAT)
new functions (e.g., PIT law)
HOWEVER, (although Leg Act creates framework) NOT YET OFFICIAL

17. Discussion Intention:
to go over some of the main changes to be aware of
Leave time for questions on the Leg Act and on e-Laws
Leg Act had 9 parts, the first 6 of which we’re going to review:
I: General
II: Statutes
III: Regulations
IV: Proof of Legislation
V: Change Powers
VI: Interpretation
Replacement – not strictly one to one
Concordance for Interp Part
New Annotated Leg Act: “The 2008 Annotated Ontario Legislation Act” (Sprague & de Cotret)
Also, new release of e-Laws on July 25
new look and feel (UAT)
new functions (e.g., PIT law)
HOWEVER, (although Leg Act creates framework) NOT YET OFFICIAL