British Columbia Bills

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Copyright © 1995-2008 Catherine P. Best
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	First Reading
	Second reading
	Third reading

Ascertaining the status of a bill

Citing a bill

Royal assent and coming into force

The origin of new legislation

New legislation sponsored by the government, known as a government bill, originates in government ministries. New legislation can also originate from a bill sponsored by a member of the legislature, known as a members bill, or from an initiative by private parties, known as a private bill. These readings are concerned with government bills.

The ministry sponsoring a bill consults with interested parties, studies the policy issues and considers the economic and social impact of the proposed legislation. Sometimes discussion papers are released to promote public consultation. The documents prepared during this initial stage can be important in determining the policy behind any legislation that is eventually introduced.

Following study and consultation, a legislative proposal goes through the following steps before it is presented in the Legislative Assembly.

The ministry presents the proposal to the Cabinet Legislation Committee.

This Committee considers the proposal and makes a recommendation to Cabinet.

If Cabinet approves the proposal, legislative counsel prepare a bill.

Once the ministry is satisfied with the bill, it is submitted to the Cabinet Legislation Committee.

This Committee considers the bill and makes a recommendation to Cabinet.

If approved by Cabinet, the bill is printed and proceeds to 1st reading in the Legislative Assembly.

Readings in the Legislature

Legislation is introduced in the legislative assembly as a bill. Each bill must pass three readings in the legislative assembly and receive royal assent before it is passed into law.

First Reading

Second Reading

Committee

Third Reading

Royal Assent

First reading

The first reading occurs on the day the legislation is introduced. The Minister of the sponsoring ministry will briefly introduce the bill in the legislature. There is no debate. Sometimes the bill is sent to committee for study at this stage.

The first reading version of the bill contains explanatory notes about each section of the legislation. These notes do not appear in later versions of the legislation. The first reading version of the bills back to 1992 are available from the Legislative Assembly website. Law libraries often receive first reading bills in print form.

Second reading

During second reading, the sponsoring Minister explains the purpose of the bill, and debate takes place on the main principles of the bill. Speeches in the legislature by the Minister responsible for the legislation can be important in determining the intention behind the legislation. The proceedings of the legislature and of legislative committees are recorded in Hansard.

After the bill has passed second reading, it is sent to committee for detailed consideration on a clause by clause basis. This can be a standing legislative committee, or a Committee of the Whole House. Amendments to the bill can be proposed at this stage. If the bill is amended, it is reprinted prior to third reading. You may want to review a transcript or report of the committee's proceedings to find out why the bill was amended.

Third reading

The final version of the bill is circulated for third reading. There is usually no debate at this stage. The third reading version of the bill is available on the Legislative Assembly website. The third reading version is also received by libraries in print form. Eventually, the government publishes blue soft cover volumes containing all legislation passed in a session of the legislature. The third reading versions of any legislation passed in that session will be included. One or two years later, the legislation will be published in a hardcover sessional volume that also contains a Table of Public Statutes.

Ascertaining the status of a bill

There are various ways to ascertain the status of a bill and to obtain references to the documents arising out of the legislative process.

The most current access to this information is through electronic sources.

	The Legislative Assembly website has Progress of Bills tables containing status information on bills back to 1992, with links to the first and third reading versions of the bills as well as links to Hansard and Committee debate.
	QP LegalEze also contains progress of bills information.

The best paper source is the BC Legislative Digest. This publication is prepared by the BC Courthouse Library, and is very current. It provides some additional information such as a brief summary of the contents of the bill, how the bill comes into force, and whether it is in force.

Citing a bill

The proper format for citing a bill includes the bill number, the name of the bill, the legislative session, the jurisdiction, and the year.

Bill 16, Police Amendment Act, 1997, 2nd Session, 36th Parliament, British Columbia, 1997.

Royal assent and coming into force

After the bill passes third reading, it receives royal assent from the Lieutenant Governor, the Queen's representative. At that time it is assigned a chapter number.

If the bill is silent on how and when it comes into force, then it comes into force immediately on receiving royal assent. If the bill indicates that it is to come into force in some other way, then it does not come into force on royal assent. See section 3 of the Interpretation Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 238.

The most common way for a bill to come into force is by order in council. This means that the bill does not come into force until the Lieutenant Governor in Council (in other words, Cabinet) issues an order proclaiming the legislation into force. There are several ways to locate proclamation information for a bill or a particular section of a bill.

	The Legislative Assembly website contains proclamation information, indicating whether legislation previously passed has come into force. Locate the legislative session in which the bill was enacted to find the proclamation information. QP LegalEze publishes a consolidated version of this information.
	The BC Legislative Digest reports proclamation information, under the Proclamation tab.
	The Table of Legislative Changes for a particular Act will indicate whether and when amendments have been proclaimed into force. The tables published with the free Queen's Printer version are not kept current. Either update them with the BC Legislative Digest, check the Table of Legislative Changes on QP LegalEze, or locate the legislation on Quicklaw (which is current and contains extensive legislative history notes).
	Other sources of proclamation information are the BC Statute Citator and the *Table of Public Statutes*.

Once you have found a reference to an order in council, you may want to find a copy of it. To do this, you can use QP LegalEze (from 1999) or go to the BC Gazette, Part II in print. A list of contents for current issues of the BC Gazette, Part II is available on the Internet. However, this does not link to the text of the orders in council. The version in QPLegalEze links to these documents.