The Québec Official Publisher and the distribution of legal documents Direction des Publications du Québec June 2014

Mission The Official Publisher is responsible for the publication and distribution of the various official texts of the Québec government: laws, regulations and the Gazette officielle. It is also responsible for the management of copyrights on government publications. To fulfil its mission, particularly as a provider of access to legislative and regulatory information, the Official Publisher interacts with the following major partners: the Québec National Assembly the Québec Cabinet (Conseil exécutif) Québec’s department of justice (ministère de la Justice)

Funding and sales The Official Publisher must self-finance its activities by charging for some of its products and services. 2013-2014 fiscal year Products of the Official Publisher: $4.6 million Gazette officielle: $3 million Other products: $1.6 million

Gazette officielle du Québec A weekly government publication containing the texts of laws, orders in council, regulations and various notices whose publication is mandatory. It is published in French (Part 1 and Part 2) and in English (Part 2).

Gazette officielle du Québec Paper edition published and distributed since 1868 194 paid subscriptions 2 million pages in 2013 charging for notices published by departments and public bodies ($2.9 million) income from subscriptions ($100 000) Internet online since 1996 free and official since July 2012 62 000 downloads a month

Compilation of Québec Laws and Regulations 1998: Laws and regulations available on the Internet in HTML format – free monthly updates 2003: Légis Québec – search tool for laws and regulations, with their history since 1999 (paid service) 2010: Laws on the Internet were made official, and printing of the compilation of the statutes ended 2012: Regulations on the Internet were made official 400 000 downloads a month

Statutes assented to Distribution of bills and of statutes assented to. Printing the annual compilation of the statutes assented to during the year (French and English versions). Free dissemination on the Internet of the statutes assented to.

Future prospects 2014-2015: Plan to develop a legislative drafting tool integrating all the stakeholders in the legislative and regulatory process. 2014-2015: Plan to update Les Publications du Québec website.

Internet addresses Les Publications du Québec website www.publicationsduquebec.gouv.qc.ca Québec National Assembly website www.assnat.qc.ca Québec justice department website www.justice.gouv.qc.ca Québec government portal www.gouv.qc.ca