LibGuides: Government Information: Canada

Quick Search

Basic search, all of Canada:

Tools to locate information produced by Canadian government

Government of Canada Publications
Searches items in the federal Depository Services Program (DSP) collection.
Not a complete record of federal government publications, but as close as it gets. Since 2012, the federal government issues all publications online. Many earlier publications are also available in PDF, and more are being digitized each week.
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For print-format items, check for the publication in the KPU Library collection using the library catalogue.
DSP Subject Thesaurus (PDF).

Canada Commons Public Document Search (formerly Canadian Public Documents Collection from desLibris) This link opens in a new window
Ebooks and reports published by Canadian organizations and government bodies.
Off campus access restricted to current KPU students and employees.

GALLOP: Government & Legislative Libraries Online Publications Portal
From the Association of Parliamentary Libraries in Canada (APLIC). It is intended as a one-stop access point to full-text searchable electronic government documents collected by Legislative libraries in Canada for their jurisdictions. Includes the federal Depository Services Program collection. New Beta search in March 2022.
Federal Science Library
Search combined collections of 7 federal science libraries.
Public Safety Canada Library Catalogue
Includes the print and electronic collections of several PSC agencies.

Library of Parliament

The Library of Parliament produces excellent briefing documents on timely topics.

Research Publications
Concise, non-partisan reports on hot topics.
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The 3 main types of publications are:
1. Hill Notes: Concise overviews of current and emerging issues of immediate interest to parliamentarians. They list additional reading sources, including recent news clippings, on the topics.
2. Background Papers: In-depth studies of policy issues, including historical background, current information and references. Many of these papers anticipate the emergence of the policy issues.
3. In Briefs: Short briefings on current issues that may refer the reader to more substantive sources published on the same topic.
Legislative Summaries
Concise summaries and background info on proposed Government bills. Updated as the Bills are revised during the legislative process.

Parliamentary information

Tools

Parliament of Canada (parl.ca)
Browse or search through the business of Parliament, including the House of Commons, Senate and committees.
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Has a built-in basic Google custom search engine. (Used to have more structured search tool.)
PARLINFO
"Current and historical information about the institutions, people and events that have shaped the Parliament of Canada since 1867." Maintained by Library of Parliament.
LegisINFO
Essential tool for tracking progress of bills through Parliament. Includes links to press releases, opposition reports, and articles about proposed legislation.
OpenParliament.ca
Up-to-date, community-driven tool for tracking individual MP activities and voting records. Also provides searchable database of House of Commons Hansard (1994-), House of Commons Committee meetings (2006-), and Bills since 1996.
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Note: you can limit search by MP, Party, Committee, Province and Result Type (i.e. Bill, Committee speech or Commons speech).
Linked Parliamentary Data Project (LiPAD)
Machine-readable and fully searchable historical Hansard. Produced by U of Toronto. Currently includes only English-language House of Commons debates back to 1901, with links to MP biographies.
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Planned work includes:addition of French-language debates, Senate debates, and Committee business; and extending the dates covered prior to 1901.

How-to guides & background info

Canadian Parliamentary Publications: A Research Guide
Excellent guide. Includes brief descriptions of the types of publications produced by Parliament (e.g. Hansard, Journals, Notice Papers, etc.), as well as tools to locate them. Note: use the navigation menu on the left to see all the sections of the guide.
Standing Committees: Finding Their Electronic Information, Post-1995
Step-by-step information from Library and Archives Canada Blog.

Hansard debates

Canadian Parliamentary Historical Resources
Searchable database of digitized versions of the debates (Hansard) and journals of the Senate and the House of Commons, from 1867 to date that coverage begins on parl.gc.ca
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Parl.gc.ca coverage begins:
House of Commons: January 17, 1994
Senate: February 27, 1996
Linked Parliamentary Data Project (LiPAD)
Machine-readable and fully searchable historical Hansard. Produced by U of Toronto. Currently includes only English-language House of Commons debates back to 1901, with links to MP biographies.
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Planned work includes:addition of French-language debates, Senate debates, and Committee business; and extending the dates covered prior to 1901.
Senate Debate Indexes
Unofficial indexes to the Senate debates from 1991 to 2005, by topic and date.

Parliamentary committees

Major Legislative and Special Study Reports by Senate Committees, 1961-2010
Arranged by name of committee. Some overlap with the searchable "Substantive Reports of Committees" database listed below, but includes legislative as well as substantive reports. Does not include links to full text.
Substantive Reports of Committees
Searchable list of reports on special or major topics by committees of the Senate and the House of Commons since 1867 to the present. Includes links to full text for recent reports.
Standing Committees: Finding Their Printed Information, Pre-1995
Step-by-step instructions from Library and Archives Canada Blog.

Commissions of Inquiry
Privy Council Office. Includes links to Index of Federal Royal Commissions, and full-text Archive. The Index includes over 7,000 publications produced by more than 200 commissions.
Federal and Provincial Royal Commissions, Commissions of Inquiry, and Reports
Browse digital collection by Date, Author, Title, or Subject., or search by keyword. Collection digitized by Queen's University Library.
Manuscript Bibliography of Canadian Federal Royal Commissions and Commissions of Inquiry
An extensive, multi-part manuscript of a bibliography of Royal Commissions and Commissions of Inquiry. Author uncertain, but likely created at LAC between 1967-70.

Digitized Collections

In addition to the digitized documents available through the Government of Canada Publications (DSP) catalogue, here are some other sources:

Internet Archive
Contains many digitized historic federal government publications. See especially the Canadian Government Publications Portal.
Government of Canada Web Archive
Federal government websites archived by Library and Archives Canada since 2005.
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Note as of July 2022: the GWAC has been down since April 2020. Tom Smyth reports that the platform is being upgraded. No ETA yet.
Canadian National Digital Heritage Index (CNDHI)
Lists collections (not specific publications) of Canadian primary history digitized by university libraries. Filter by keyword GOVERNMENT to locate collections of government information in many formats.
Registry of Canadian Government Information Digitization Projects
The registry is an index of digitized government documents held by Canadian libraries. Hosted by University of Toronto Libraries.
Canadian Government Information PLN Web Archive
Several Canadian libraries are working together to permanently archive provincial and federal government information sources using Archive-It software. The resulting collections are searchable.

Access to Information (ATI) & Freedom of Information (FOI)

Some government information may not be made readily-available to the public, but can be requested under the terms of the Access to Infromation Act. Secret Canada's Guide to FOI (created by the Globe & Mail newspaper) provides lots of helpful tips and templates for filing ATI requests.

You might want to start by checking some of the databases listed below to see if someone else has already requested the info.

Databases of previously-completed federal ATI requests

Open by Default
Searchable database of the full-text of responsive records (i.e. the documents released) to more than 20,000 completed Canadian federal ATI requests going back to 2011. Created by the Investigative Journalism Foundation.
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launched in March 2024
Secret Canada
Searchable database of FOI request summaries for federal, provincial and municipal governments, as well as miscellaneous bodies. Created by the Globe & Mail newspaper.
Completed Access to Information Requests
Searchable database of ATIP summaries for "key federal institutions". Only covers latest 2 years (formerly dated back to 2012). Does NOT include full-text of documents released. Produced by Treasury Board Secretariat Canada.

Contact people for federal government agencies

List of access to information and privacy coordinators by institution
Lists ATI contact person at each Canadian federal government agency.
InfoSource: Sources of Federal Government and Employee Information
Designed to assist the public in exercising their rights under the Access to Information Act and Privacy Act. Identifies the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Coordinators for each government unit.

KPU Library

Government Information