Electronic Format

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After more than a century and a half in print, the Canada Gazette was launched on the Internet. The Canada Gazette Web Site became available on June 4, 1998, and is free. It includes all three parts of the Canada Gazette, the extra issues, the supplements, the Quarterly Index to Part I and the Consolidated Index of Statutory Instruments to Part II. The format and content of the electronic version of the Canada Gazette are identical to the format and content of the printed copy. PDF (Portable Document Format) was chosen because it is able to accommodate the graphics, columns, equations and chemical formulae which appear in the Canada Gazette. The Canada Gazette Directorate is responsible for all aspects of the Web edition. For evidentiary purposes, only the printed copy can be used.

An important step was the launch, on April 17, 2000, of the alternate format of the Canada Gazette parts I and II, making the Canada Gazette accessible to persons with disabilities. The text has been produced in ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) format which can be read by almost all types of software, including DOS-based systems, and screen-reading and speech-output devices, but does not include the tables, graphics, columns, equations and chemical formulae which appear in the Canada Gazette since ASCII does not support these documents. The Minister commented at the time of the launch of the alternative format: "My department is committed to providing all Canadians with equal access to Government of Canada information, . . . [a]s the Government of Canada moves towards connecting Canadians on-line, the Canada Gazette on the Internet will play an important role in enabling more Canadians to provide input and be part of the democratic process by commenting on the proposed regulations published in the Canada Gazette." Communication Canada plans to work with representatives of the disability community and experts in the field of assistive devices and information technology to make the alternative format of the Canada Gazette completely accessible on the Internet. (see footnote 33)

Manon Bertrand: Coordinator

The Web edition has made the Canada Gazette more accessible to Canadians and to people and organizations outside Canada who require the information published in it. The Canada Gazette Directorate continues to work to enhance the Web edition. Goals include making the electronic version official and providing both versions simultaneously; making the site fully accessible to persons with disabilities who have difficulty with the present format; and making the site searchable by incorporating a search engine. (see footnote 34)

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Footnotes

Footnote 33
Public Works and Government Services Canada, "Minister Gagliano Launches Alternate Format of the Canada Gazette on the Internet," news release (April 17, 2000).

Footnote 34
Carole Kennedy, "Canada Gazette on the Internet - The Canadian Experience" Newsletter (a bi-annual newsletter of the International Government Printing and Publishing Association) June 1999, Vol. 5, Issue 2.

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NOTICE:
The format of the electronic version of this issue of the Canada Gazette was modified in order to be compatible with extensible hypertext markup language (XHTML 1.0 Strict).