Among the most important pieces of legislation that came into force on January 1 is a Quebec statute, an Act respecting the Compilation of Quebec Laws and Regulations, SQ 2009, c. 40 (version française: LQ 2009, c. 40). Pursuant to this Act, all consolidated statutes published by the Quebec Official Publisher (Editeur officiel du Québec) have official status “whatever the medium used”, including the online version published by Publications du Québec.
Consolidations of regulatory texts will have official status on January 1, 2012; in the meantime, certain regulations will have official status if so stated within the published document. The Act also provides that updates and consolidations must be accompanied by explanatory notes describing the nature and scope of any changes made to the published documents, which is in itself a major improvement to the online publication of legislative consolidations.
Quebec joins Canada (federal jurisdiction) and Ontario in granting official status to their online statutory consolidations of laws. let’s hope the remaining provincial jurisdictions aren’t far behind.