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

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

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

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. 1990 or were enacted after 1990 Consolidated regulations that were in the R.R.O. 1990 or were filed after 1990 Source statutes enacted since 2000 Source regulations filed since 2000

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

Background - Implementation Old e-Laws website (2001-2014) 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

Background - Implementation New e-Laws website (Spring 2015- 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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