Guides: Government Information & Data: Government of Canada Information

Government of Canada Information

Canada is a parliamentary democracy, which is a system of government that holds that the law is the supreme authority. The law is communicated through carefully worded documents known as legislation, which serves the purpose of regulating what may or may not be done in Canada. The power to create legislation resides in the Legislature, which includes the House of Commons and the Senate, and the Crown, which is represented by the Governor General.

How Parliament Works
Educational information and publications that describe how Canada's system of government functions.
Parliament of Canada Publication Search Tool
The Government of Canada Publication search tool offers multiple possibilities to access and share information from the House Debates (Hansard), Committee Evidence and the Journals dating back to September 2001.
LiPaD
A machine-readable and fully searchable historical Hansard, starting from 1901.
LEGISinfo
LEGISinfo is an essential research tool for finding information on legislation before Parliament. This tool provides electronic access to a wide range of information about each bill.
Consolidated Acts and Regulations of Canada
The Justice Laws Website provides a consolidation, or updated version, of the federal Acts and regulations maintained by the Department of Justice as a convenient way for the public to view the state of the law, without having to carry out research and put together the various amended provisions.

Administrative Data

GC InfoBase
The GC InfoBase is an interactive data-visualization tool, transforming complex federal data into simple visual stories for Canadians. Since its creation in 2013, the GC InfoBase has been recognized as the authoritative source of Government expenditure information by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) and was identified as a public sector innovation by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI). The tool contains years’ worth of federal government data, bringing together information previously scattered across over 500 government reports.