Frequently Asked Questions

What are Consolidated Statutes and Regulations?

They are the texts included in the Compilation of Québec Laws and Regulations (CQLR), i.e. the grouping, by the Minister of Justice, of statutes and regulations of a general and permanent nature. This corpus is regularly updated by the Service de la refonte des lois et des règlements of the ministère de la Justice (MJQ), on the basis of the statutes adopted by the National Assembly and the regulations made by the Government. In LégisQuébec, the texts that are part of the CQLR are referred to as “Consolidated Statutes and Regulations”.

What are Annual Statutes and Regulations?

Annual Statutes

Many of the statutes adopted each year by the National Assembly are selected by the Minister of Justice to be included in the CQLR as new statutes. From that point on, a unique alphanumeric designation is attributed to them by the Service de la refonte des lois et des règlements of the MJQ.

Certain statutes adopted by the National Assembly amend statutes already included in the CQLR. After their adoption, the Service de la refonte des lois et des règlements of the MJQ makes the necessary amendments to the existing statutes, in accordance with the coming into force date.

In LégisQuébec, the corpus of Annual Statutes brings together the statutes adopted by the National Assembly that were included in the CQLR or that amend statutes already included in the CQLR. To consult all the annual statutes adopted by the National Assembly, refer to the Annual Statutes of Québec section of Les Publications du Québec website.

Annual Regulations

As is the case for annual statutes, many of the regulations made by the Government are selected and included in the CQLR as new regulations or as regulations amending other regulations already included in the CQLR.

Hence, LégisQuébec includes the annual regulations made by the Government that were included in the CQLR or that amend regulations already included in the CQLR. To consult all the annual regulations, refer to the Gazette officielle du Québec.

Do Consolidated Statutes and Regulations have official status?

The official nature of the Consolidated Statutes and Regulations is established under section 7 of the Act respecting the Compilation of Québec Laws and Regulations (CQLR, chapter R-2.2.0.0.2):

Publication of the compilation, or of any extract from it, by the Québec Official Publisher, whatever the medium used, confers official status on the texts.

What is updating?

Updating the CQLR is the operation, carried out by the Service de la refonte des lois et des règlements of the MJQ, which consists in incorporating into the texts the repeals, replacements, additions and other amendments adopted by the competent authorities, in accordance with the coming into force date. This date then becomes the new “updated date” of the documents in LégisQuébec.

The operation of updating also involves removing expired provisions and provisions whose purpose has been achieved, while ensuring the CQLR’s overall consistency.

What is an information note?

A document entitled “Information note” precedes each updating of the CQLR and is posted on LégisQuébec, in accordance with the second paragraph of section 4 of the Act respecting the Compilation of Québec Laws and Regulations (CQLR, chapter R-2.2.0.0.2).

The information note is drafted by the Service de la refonte des lois et des règlements of the MJQ. It includes the detailed amendments made under the “consolidator’s general power” in both the statutes and regulations. The scope of that power is described in the second paragraph of section 3 of the Act respecting the Compilation of Québec Laws and Regulations (CQLR, chapter R-2.2.0.0.2).

For proper consultation, the fact that four separate files called “information note” must be taken into account:

• Statutes – French
• Statutes – English
• Regulations – French
• Regulations – English

It should be noted that the updates made are not necessarily the same in both languages.

Among the historical references under a section or an article, the amendment identified in an information note is designated by the abbreviation “I.N.”, which is followed by the updated date on which the amendment was made, for example “I.N. 2015-09-01”. This type of reference has been used since January 1, 2014.

Information note

What is the alphanumeric designation?

Consolidated Statutes

The alphanumeric designation is a classification method. It uses the first letter of the first distinctive noun in the French title of the consolidated statute followed by a number, which corresponds to the alphabetic order of the French title in its group.

For example:

The Act respecting the Barreau du Québec (Loi sur le Barreau), CQLR, chapter B-1

The Unclaimed Property Act (Loi sur les biens non réclamés), CQLR, chapter B-5.1

Given that this numbering system began at the time of the last complete consolidation of statutes in 1977, decimals had to be introduced to insert new statutes whose titles, in alphabetic order, fall between two statutes with established chapter numbers.

B
Barreau	B-1
Bâtiment	B-1.1
Bibliothèque et Archives	B-1.2
Bibliothèque nationale	B-2

Hence, a change in title can lead to a change in the alphanumeric designation so as to reconcile it with the alphabetic order. For example, the Act to establish the Grande bibliothèque du Québec (Loi sur la Grande bibliothèque du Québec) was given the alphanumeric designation G-3 after its coming into force in 1998. In 2002, its title was changed to the Act respecting the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec (Loi sur la Bibliothèque nationale du Québec) and its alphanumeric designation became B-2.2. Lastly, its title was changed again in 2006 to the Act respecting Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (Loi sur Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec) and its alphanumeric designation became B-1.2.

Consolidated Regulations

The principles for classifying consolidated statutes also apply to regulations. However, regulations are first grouped according to the statute under which they were made.

For example, the alphanumeric designation of all the regulations made under the Food Products Act (Loi sur les produits alimentaires) starts with P-29, followed by the letter “r.”, to indicate a regulation. Next comes a number corresponding to the regulation’s alphabetic order in the group according to the first important word in the French title of the regulation:

Title	Alphanumeric designation
Regulation respecting food (Aliments, Règlement sur les…)	CQLR, chapter P-29, r. 1
Regulation respecting bottled water (Eaux embouteillées, Règlement sur les…)	CQLR, chapter P-29, r. 2
Regulation respecting fresh fruits and vegetables (Fruits et légumes frais, Règlement sur les…)	CQLR, chapter P-29, r. 3
Regulation respecting the reimbursement of the costs of permanent inspection (Remboursement des coûts d’inspection permanente, Règlement sur le…)	CQLR, chapter P-29, r. 4

What are the terms and conditions of the coming into force of Annual Statutes and Regulations?

The terms and conditions of the coming into force of Annual Statutes and Regulations are indicated in the last section or article, called “operative part”.

Annual Statutes

The terms and conditions of their coming into force are always indicated.

Annual Regulations

The terms and conditions of their coming into force are generally indicated. When that is not the case, refer to the part introducing the document when it is published in the Gazette officielle du Québec or to the Regulations Act (CQLR, chapter R-18.1), which stipulates that regulations come into force 15 days after the date of their publication in the Gazette officielle du Québec or on the date of their publication if the prescribed conditions are abided by.

Various terms and conditions of provisions brought into force

Texts may come into force in whole or in part, hence, on various dates.

There are several terms and conditions of provisions brought into force:

• the date is indicated in the operative part;
• the date will be known when an order in council is published to that effect;
• the date is indicated as the maximum term for the coming into force, but an order in council can move the date forward;
• the date is related to a particular event, such as the coming into force of a section or an article of another statute, the date of a general meeting, the anniversary date of another provision brought into force or the date of the coming into force of the first regulation made under a particular provision.

Fortunately, there is an exhaustive tool in which each provision brought into force is listed for every Québec statute assented to since January 1, 1978. The document is updated by the Service de la refonte des lois et des règlements of the MJQ and is made available free of charge on the LégisQuébec website:

Table of provisions brought into force

Why is the text of certain documents displayed in red?

When a statute or a regulation has been repealed or replaced, or has ceased to have effect, that information is indicated, for example, in the upper right-hand corner of the full text. The text is also displayed in red in order to draw the user’s attention to this feature, as it has a significant impact on the relevance of the content.

What is the difference between the updated version and the historical version of the Consolidated Statutes and Regulations?

The updated version of a consolidated statute or regulation is the most recent, full version available of that document. All the amendments in force on that date have therefore been incorporated by the Service de la refonte des lois et des règlements of the MJQ and are included in the document displayed.

The historical version of a consolidated statute or regulation is the full text of the document, as it read on a date prior to that of the updated version.

What period is covered by the historical versions of the Consolidated Statutes and Regulations?

A historical version is created for each date of coming into force of an amendment to a document.

Consolidated Statutes

It is possible to consult the full text of a statute in force on a specific date, as of April 1, 1999.

However, when consulting versions of a particular section or article, the history may go back to December 31, 1977, the date of the last complete consolidation of statutes.

Consolidated Regulations

Regarding the historical versions of regulations, it is possible to go back to September 1, 2012, either for the full document or individual sections or articles.

What are the file formats available?

LégisQuébec makes it possible to consult legislative texts in the following formats:

HTML for on-screen viewing

PDF for on-screen viewing or for printing with structured page layout

ePUB for viewing on a mobile device

What is ePUB?

An ePUB is a computer file designed to be downloaded and viewed on a mobile device. One of the characteristics of ePUB is that its content adjusts to the type of device used. To do so, the device must be equipped with software making it possible to read those files and, depending on the software used, it is possible to increase the font size, do a keyword search, add bookmarks or personal notes, and so on.

May I reproduce the statutes and regulations found on LégisQuébec?

LégisQuébec is the property of Les Publications du Québec, which holds exclusive intellectual property rights, including copyright.

A reproduction licence is therefore required. The request must be completed on the Québec.ca website.

The request may involve obtaining XML files, a machine-readable markup language.