Author: Haley O’Halloran, Toronto Lawyers' Association
As a lawyer, whether articling or more experienced, you are expected to stay informed about legislative changes relevant to your practice. This includes tracking proposed bills and their status, including related regulations and coming into force details. Staying informed helps you avoid mistakes, save time, and expand your expertise and interests.
Why It’s Important to Trach Legislative Changes: A Look at the Protecting Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act
Looking at the recently assented Bill 5, Protecting Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act, 2025 can help to underscore how important staying up to date on legislative changes is. This Act makes many important changes to existing legislation, with the more substantial changes analyzed in the beginning text of the Act in an explanatory note.
Amended Legislation
- Electricity Act, 1998
- Environmental Protection Act
- Environmental Assessment Act
- Mining Act
- Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998
- Ontario Heritage Act
- Endangered Species Act, 2007
- Rebuilding Ontario Place Act, 2023
Repealed Legislation
- Endangered Species Act, 2007
- Ontario Regulation 284/24
- Ontario Regulation 230/08
- Ontario Regulation 6/24
- Ontario Regulation 830/21
- Ontario Regulation 829/21
- Ontario Regulation 651/21
- Ontario Regulation 656/21
- Ontario Regulation 832/21
- Ontario Regulation 242/08
New Legislation Enacted
- Special Economic Zones Act, 2025
- Species Conservation Act, 2025
As you can see, the Act makes major changes, like repealing the Endangered Species Act, 2007 and enacting the Species Conservation Act, 2025. This information is imperative for lawyers whose practice areas include environmental, real estate, and municipal areas of law. These lawyers would be expected to keep themselves and their clients up to date on how these laws impact them.
This Act is also a great example of why it is important to utilize legislative research tools, as we will review below. While news sources and legal blogs are great resources to learn about the repealed and enacted legislation mentioned above, the smaller amendments are less likely to be mentioned in these publications. However, these amendments might be more relevant to your practice.
The commencement information for this Act cites that:
- Except as otherwise provided in this section, this Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The Schedules to this Act come into force as provided in each Schedule.
- If a Schedule to this Act provides that any of its provisions are to come into force on a day to be named by order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council, an order may apply to one or more of those provisions, and orders may be issued at different times with respect to any of those provisions.
Typically, coming into force information is included at the end of the Act or at the end of a given section. Many Acts, like the Protecting Ontario by Unleashing Our Economy Act, 2025, have different coming into force information depending on the section and it is necessary to review the information for any sections relevant to you. If you need assistance with finding coming into force information, which is often confusing, please contact the library.
How to Track Legislative Changes
Government Websites
While reading the news and legal blogs can be a great way to learn more about legislation, these sources may not be dependable to cover all important changes and there is often a significant delay between the announcement of the change and when these sources publish.
The most current source on legislative updates in Ontario are the official government websites, specifically e-laws and the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
Legislative Pulse
Lexis’ Legislative Pulse tool allows users to locate and track detailed information, from first reading dates to proclamations and in force dates. This tool also allows you to create email alerts for new legislation and changes to Acts and regulations tailored to your interests.
Use Legislative Pulse to:
- Search for bills by jurisdiction, session of parliament, bill title, chapter number or amended act.
- Track all bills that were in session in the Federal and Provincial Legislatures from January 2002 to present.
- Track regulations from January 2007 to present.
- Get timely updates posted as soon as information is available from official government sources.
Toronto Lawyers’ Association (Court House Library)
Finally, at the TLA the library team puts together a weekly Legislation Update that is available in the TLA Weekly Update and on our website. We track Bills, regulations, and proposed legislation in Ontario and federally. The Legislative Update provides coming into force information, highlights when Bills contain proposed amendments to notable Acts, and links directly to government websites, so that readers can review the text of the Bill themselves.
Contact the Library
Want to learn more about legislative research or the other resources available at the TLA? Contact the library at library@tlaonline.ca or visit us in person at the 361 University Ave Court House!
