Navigating the New Bill (Part 2 of 3)
As we mentioned before, reading Bill 106 can feel like traipsing through a muddy stream on a rainy day. In Part 1 of this guide to reading the Bill, we provided an outline of the Bill’s structure and basic contents. In Part 2, we continue by explaining how its formatting affects its reading. Fair warning: It might be difficult to stay awake while you read this, though we have tried to make it as fun as possible.
PART 2 – SECTIONS OF SECTIONS CHANGING SECTIONS OF SECTIONS
Each section of Schedule 1 of Bill 106 references and then makes changes to a section of another statute. For example, section 1 of Schedule 1 makes changes to section 1 of the Condominium Act, 1998. Getting to know the layout and formatting of the Bill is crucial to avoiding confusion as to whether you are reading a section of Schedule 1 or an amended section of another Act.
Whether you are reading the on-line version of Bill 106 (here) or the printable pdf version (here) you will find that section numbers are bolded and indented in exactly the same manner regardless of whether they are sections of Schedule 1 of Bill 106 or sections of another statute being amended or even being newly created by the schedule. The key to knowing what you are reading is unfortunately little more than recognizing the differences in how plain, bold, and italicized fonts are used within each section.
Note, this means that if you are not reading one of the versions of the Bill produced by the legislature and containing its formatting, you might not be seeing the Bill as it is intended to be seen and read. You should always go back to the original source (i.e., using the links above) to be certain you have a correct, and correctly formatted, version.
Here is our summary of the four key formatting rules of the Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015:
- All section and sub-section numbers of the Bill are in bold lettering and slightly indented;
- All section numbers of legislation that is being created or amended by the Bill are also in bold lettering and slightly indented, but the sub-section numbers or letters within such sections are set out only in plain text;
- All text that is part of the Bill (i.e., that describes the amendment being made) is in bold lettering; and
- All text that constitutes amended or new wording in a statute is in plain text, except for the section number (as referenced above).
In addition, there are formatting rules relating to headings which are dependent upon (a) whether the heading is in the Bill or a heading in a statute being amended by the Bill, and (b) the priority of the heading in question, as follows:
- Headings to the three sections comprising the Bill are in bold lettering. The main (first priority) headings naming the schedules are in BOLD & ALL CAPITALS LETTERING, and headings within the schedules that separate its main sections (second priority) are in BOLD SMALL CAPITALS LETTERING. Lastly, headings above particular sections of the schedules (third priority) are in bold italic lettering.
- Headings that are being added to the statutes being amended by the Bill follow a similar pattern based on priority. Main (first priority) headings are in BOLD & ALL CAPITALS LETTERING. Second priority headings are in SMALL CAPITALS LETTERING but are not bolded. Third priority headings, which generally describe the basic intent or content of a section being added to the statute in question, are in regular bold text.
Most of these principles (other than some of the headings rules) are illustrated in the following example, in which section 139 of Schedule 1 adds a new section 176.1 to the Condominium Act, 1998 :
To help you out, here is a look at the same example from above, with the principles labelled:
- Text that is amending only part of a section of another statute may be contained within the text of a section of the Bill and therefore will be in bold lettering even though it is an amendment to another statute.
For example, sub-section 140(9) of Schedule 1 of Bill 106 states the following:
And, just to keep us on our toes, sometimes both methods for making amendments are combined, as in subsection 60(9) of Schedule 1, which states:
You deserve our congratulations for wading through this part of our guide, and in the third and last part of this series we’ll take a look at some unique elements of the Bill that make it a bit strange.