Canada Elections Act (Bill C-31)

Last revised January 29, 2024

Bill C-31, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act and the Public Service Employment Act, S.C. 2007, c. 21, has some errors.

Errors

There is no section 41.  However, 41 is not missing; there was a mistake made while numbering the sections.

Additionally, s. 42(1) contains incorrect wording. It mentions that s. 28 (f), (g), (h) and (i) will come into force two months after the day the Act receives royal assent.  However, s. 28 does not have an (f), (g), (h) and (i).  It is replacing paragraphs 162 (f) to (i) of the Canada Elections Act, S.C. 2000, c. 9.

Any correction to the wording of an in force section cannot be changed after it receives royal assent.  It would have to be amended by a Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act, which may or may not be done at some point.

Update

To date there has not been an amendment made to correct or acknowledge these errors. However, there have been subsequent amendments since Bill C-31 came into force making changes to the sections that the errors concern. Specifically, sections 162 (f), (g) and (i) were  amended by S.C. 2018 c. 31 s. 110. As of the addition of this update, subsection (h) reads the same as it did.