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13 LawNow 15 (1988-1989)
Proliferation of Law: How Can We Keep Up

handle is hein.journals/lanow13 and id is 43 raw text is: Proliferation of law How can we keep up? By Steve Struthers If our salaries grew as fast as the rate of passage of statutes, by-laws and regulations, there would be grave political speeches exhorting us to take steps to eliminate or curtail the spiral of inflation. The government of Canada has enacted hundreds, if not thousands, of statutes dealing with such diverse sub- ject matter as criminal law, shipping, unemployment insurance and income tax. Not to be outdone, our province has in place approximately 535 statutes, encompassing education, labour laws, and highway traffic laws to name but a few. This explosion of law is mystifying, terrifying, but is it all necessary? We have no speeches on reduction of the number of laws or increased access- ibility to those laws, but we have declarations, almost daily, of new laws, new regulations, as a way of dealing with every issue placed before govern- ment. No-one can be aware of, much less knowledgeable about, all the statutes which govern our lives. But consider the fact that the statutes themselves are only a small part of the total. Appended to and forming an important part of most statutes are regulations, the nuts and bolts of procedure. Anyone who has fought through income tax forms or unemployment insurance procedure has been, knowingly or not, dealing with those little laws, the regulations which prescribe forms to use and procedures to be followed under the legislation. Closer to home (at least for this writer), are the regulations which set out No-one can be aware of all the statutes that govern our lives the number of points to be lost by motor vehicle operators who fail to observe provincial traffic laws. A suf- ficient number of violations and con- sequent loss of points can lead to suspension of an operator's licence. Regulations may be procedural or administrative in nature, but others, as in the case of those dealing with traffic violations, may be penal with breach of same leading to fines or other penalties. Concerned and interested persons can keep up with major legislative changes at the provincial or federal level through the media, by following of legislative debates, or by reading Hansard. What about regulations? The Canada Gazette reprints new federal regulations, and the Alberta Gazette performs the same function for provin- cial regulations. Few people know of the existence of these official gazettes. If it is safe to say that no-one in this country is familiar with all statutes and regulations, what about another form of subordinate legislation which has direct impact on our day-to-day living - municipal by-laws. Smoking restric- tions, cat and dog licensing require- ments and parking regulations are all the result of passage of local by-laws. Each of the three sorts of by-laws mentioned carries penalties for its breach. Copies of municipal by-laws may be obtained from municipal offices but there is little done to make the general public aware of the existence of these by-laws. Statutes and by-laws are passed after open debate and discussion by the legislature or the municipal council, but no such debate is required or held with Resource News / October 1988 15