What Is a Limited Revision of an Act?
The Local Government Act, R.S.B.C. 2015, c.1, came into force on January 1, 2016. If you know that the last Revised Statutes of British Columbia were produced in 1996, this citation looks a little confusing. The explanation is that the new Local Government Act is what is known as a limited revision of an act.
British Columbia’s Statute Revision Act allows the government to produce a limited revision of a single act instead of revising all the statutes. Traditionally, British Columbia’s statutes have been revised every 15 years or so, with R.S.B.C. 1996 being the last general revision; it remains to be seen if there will ever be another general revision of the Statutes of British Columbia.
These limited revision acts are cited R.S.B.C. followed by the year of revision (e.g. R.S.B.C. 2015, c.1). Just to confuse things further, British Columbia’s limited revision acts were cited S.B.C. until 2013.
British Columbia is not the only province that can produce a limited revision of an act; several other provinces (e.g. Alberta) have the power to produce a limited revision.
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