1st Session, 37th Parliament,
49-50 Elizabeth II, 2001

House of Commons of Canada

BILL C-327

An Act to establish a national standard for the representation of dates in all-numeric form

      Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

SHORT TITLE

Short title

1. All-Numeric Dates Act.

PURPOSE OF ACT

Purpose

2. The purpose of this Act is to harmonize the representation of dates in all-numeric form by establishing a national standard to that effect.

MINISTER

Duty of Minister

3. The Minister of Industry shall take such measures as are necessary to promote the use of the national standard provided for in this Act in relation to the all-numeric representation of dates.

NATIONAL STANDARD

International system

4. The standard to be used in Canada for the representation of dates in all-numeric form is that developed by the International Organization for Standardization

Date

5. An all-numeric date shall

    (a) be written from left to right in the following sequence:

year month day;

    (b) use only a hyphen or a space between the year and the month, and between the month and the day;

    (c) be written in arabic numerals; and

    (d) consist of

      (i) subject to section 6, four digits to represent the year;

      (ii) two digits to represent the month, a zero being used as the first digit in the case of each of the first nine months of a year; and

      (iii) two digits to represent the day, a zero being used as the first digit in the case of each of the first nine days of a month.

Exception

6. The last two digits may be used to represent the year

    (a) in the case of years nineteen hundred and ninety to nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, inclusively; or

    (b) in the case of the year two thousand and thirty-two and subsequent years.

COMING INTO FORCE

Coming into force

7. This Act shall come into force on a day to be fixed by order of the Governor in Council.