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The Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Program was
established in 1975. Since then, eight Acts have been passed (1977,
1978, 1981, 1984, 1987, 1992, 1993 and 1994). The purpose of the
Program is to allow minor amendments of a non-controversial nature to
be made to a number of federal statutes without having to wait for
particular statutes to be opened up for amendments of a more substantial
nature. Anyone may suggest amendments for possible inclusion in a set
of proposals, but most of the current proposals have come from
government departments or agencies.
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The Legislation Section of the Department of Justice is responsible
for receiving and reviewing proposals. The following criteria are
applied to determine whether a suggested amendment may be included
in the Proposals tabled in Parliament. The suggested amendment must
not
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(b) involve the spending of public funds;
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(c) prejudicially affect the rights of persons; or
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(d) create a new offence or subject a new class of persons to an
existing offence.
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The Legislation Section prepares a document entitled Proposals for a
Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, containing only those
proposals that, in its view, meet the Program criteria.
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This document is tabled in the House of Commons by the Minister
of Justice, and referred to the appropriate Standing Committee of the
House. Except in 1977, the proposals have also been tabled in the
Senate and referred to its Standing Committee on Legal and
Constitutional Affairs. Consideration of the proposals by these
Committees has always been thorough and non-partisan. If either of
these Committees considers a proposal to be controversial, that
proposal is dropped. The reports of the Senate Committee have always
been adopted by the Senate, but a motion has never been made for
concurrence in the reports of the House Committee. A Miscellaneous
Statute Law Amendment Bill is then prepared, based on the reports of
the two Committees and containing only proposals approved by both
Committees. Passage of the Bill has always been speedy, given the usual
understanding that the Bill will receive three readings in each House
without debate.
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In the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985, the revised Income Tax Act
in the 5th Supplement came into force several years after the other
revised statutes. Therefore, references to the Income Tax Act in the other
statutes are based on the pre-revision version of that Act. This means
that in certain cases numbers or terms used in such references differ
from the corresponding numbers or terms used in the revised Income
Tax Act.
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Sections 5 and 15 of the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985, Act
contain a legal solution to that problem, as they deem the pre-revision
version of such references to be replaced by their revised version.
However, it is felt that possible errors in the interpretation of such
references should be prevented by adapting them to the revised Income
Tax Act.
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As the amendments in Part 2 would normally have been made in the
statute revision process, they do not in any way affect the substance of
the provisions to be amended.
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Part 3 contains conditional amendments. It also repeals a number of
statutes that are spent or no longer have any effect for other reasons.
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