A new archive of the Canada Gazette from 1841-1997 is now available online on the new Library and Archives search platform. The previous version “A Nation’s Chronicle” has been unavailable for the past few months and has now migrated onto the new platform. The issues of the Gazette are available as PDFs. More current issues of the Canada Gazette (1998-present) are available on the Canada Gazette website.
The Canada Gazette (from 1947 onwards) is split into three parts. Part 1 contains public notices, official appointments and proposed regulations. Part 2 contains newly enacted regulations, government proclamations and orders in council. Part 3 contains public Acts of Parliament, and proclamations and orders in council related to those acts. Prior to 1947, all of those types of notices were published together. Having access to the digitized Canada Gazette archives is very useful when doing historical legislative research.
To search specifically in the Canada Gazette, click on “Advanced Search” in Collection Search, and click on “Additional search options”. Under database, select “Canada Gazette 1841-1997”. The other search options are similar to the previous search interface, including narrowing the search by series i.e. 1841-1869 (Province of Canada) or Part II (1947-1997), by specific date or date range, volume, issue number or issue type. Keyword searching is also available in the “all these words” field at the top of the search page.
UVic Law Library has a series of tutorial videos on Legislative research, which includes how to use the Canada Gazette.
If you have any questions on using the Canada Gazette or doing historical legislative research, please contact the law librarians at lawref@uvic.ca.
