# Quebec — municipal courts, how regulations are made, and why LégisQuébec is official

From the official texts of **c-72.01** (*Act respecting municipal courts*), **R-18.1** (*Regulations Act*), **R-2.2.0.0.2** (*Act respecting the Compilation of Québec Laws and Regulations*) and **CCQ-1992** (*Act respecting the implementation of the reform of the Civil Code*) — LégisQuébec, à jour 1 April 2026. Retrieved 2026-07.

## Municipal courts (c-72.01)

**s. 1 — the purpose:** "to establish municipal courts to dispense **community justice** throughout Québec, thus making the justice system **more readily accessible to citizens**."

**s. 3 — they're optional:** a local council "**may** adopt a by-law to establish a local municipal court having jurisdiction solely within the territory of the municipality." Several municipalities may share a **common** court by agreement (Div. II). **s. 27** — a municipal court is "a **court of original jurisdiction** in the matters devolved upon it by law; it is a **court of record**." **s. 24.1** — under the authority of the **chief municipal judge**.

### Jurisdiction — narrow, and municipality-centred

**s. 28 — civil:**
> "(1) any action brought under a municipal by-law, resolution or order **for the recovery of any sum of money due to the municipality** in respect of a tax, licence, tariff, water rate, fee, compensation or permit…;
> (3) any action in which the amount claimed is **under $30,000**, brought by the municipality as the **lessor** of movable or immovable property … **other than an immovable for housing purposes**, or any action of the same nature instituted by the lessee against the municipality."

**This is not a small-claims court.** The municipality is always a party. There is **no general civil jurisdiction over disputes between citizens**, and municipal **housing** leases are expressly carved out.

**s. 29 — penal:** offences under "**the charter of the municipality or a municipal by-law, resolution or order**" and under "**the Act governing the municipality**." The judge "may order any measure conducive to the enforcement of a municipal by-law, resolution or order, **except the demolition of an immovable**."

**s. 30 — exclusivity:** once a municipal court exists and a judge is appointed, no Court of Québec judge or justice of the peace may take cognizance of those offences "**unless the municipal judge refers the case**." For persons **under 18**, the municipal judge **shall refer** to the Court of Québec "where the interest of the person warrants it or the person applies therefor."

> ⚠️ **Criminal Code summary jurisdiction is *not* granted by this Act.** Searched: c-72.01 contains **no provision** conferring Criminal Code jurisdiction. Sections **63** (the clerk "deemed to be a justice of the peace" where exercising functions "in criminal matters"), **31¶2**, and **118(6.1)** **presuppose** criminal work but don't grant it. The grant is elsewhere — likely the **Courts of Justice Act (T-16)** and/or the Criminal Code's "summary conviction court" machinery. **Not asserted here without the text.**

### Procedure, appeals, money

- **s. 74** — the **Code of Civil Procedure** governs actions; **penal proceedings** follow the **Code of Penal Procedure** (C-25.1).
- **s. 80 — appeal:** where the object in dispute **exceeds $15,000** (a tax, licence, tariff, fee, permit…, or a contract interpretation of that value), "an **appeal lies from the final decision of the judge to the Court of Appeal**." Straight to the Court of Appeal.
- **s. 81** — below the art. 536 CCP threshold, judgments are **final and without appeal**.
- **s. 82** — where a **future right** is affected, the defendant may **by way of evocation** require the action be brought before the **Superior Court**.
- **s. 84** — fines belong to the prosecuting municipality; **only the council** may remit fines and costs, by majority resolution.

## How Quebec regulations are made (R-18.1)

**s. 1 — "regulation"** = "a **normative instrument of a general and impersonal nature, made under an Act and having force of law** when it is in effect."

**s. 3 — what's excluded** (scoping matters): internal management/borrowing/HR; **by-laws of municipalities** and supramunicipal bodies *(¶2 — which is why municipal by-laws run on the Municipal Code / Cities and Towns Act instead)*; school boards/CEGEPs/UQ; health and social services institutions; **court regulations**; and anything the Government excludes by order.

### The lifecycle

| Stage | Rule |
|---|---|
| **Examine** | **s. 4** — every proposed regulation goes to the **Minister of Justice** for examination. **s. 5** — checks it is **authorized by the Act**, **in harmony** with existing law, **juridically appropriate**, **coherent**, and meets **draftsmanship** standards. **s. 7** — amended otherwise than as recommended → **back for re-examination**. |
| **Publish the draft** | **s. 8** — "Every proposed regulation **shall be published in the Gazette officielle du Québec**." **s. 10** — with a notice stating the comment period and who to send comments to. |
| **Wait** | **s. 11** — "**No proposed regulation may be made or submitted for approval before the expiry of 45 days** from its publication…, or … the period indicated in the notice or in the Act **where … longer**." **45 days is a floor, not a ceiling.** |
| **Escape hatch** | **s. 12** — a shorter period, **or no publication at all**, where **urgency** requires it or the regulation concerns **norms of a fiscal nature**. **s. 13** — the **reason must be published**. |
| **Amend freely** | **s. 14** — "A proposed regulation may be **amended after its publication without being published a second time**." *(The final text can differ from what you commented on.)* |
| **Publish the regulation** | **s. 15** — "Every regulation **shall be published** in the Gazette officielle du Québec." |
| **In force** | **s. 17** — "A regulation comes into force **15 days after the date of its publication**… or on any **later** date indicated in the regulation or the Act." **s. 18** — sooner (down to the publication date) for **urgency** or **fiscal norms** — **"The reason … shall be published with the regulation."** |
| **Fairness backstop** | **s. 19** — where s. 18 is used, **no one may be convicted** of an offence under the regulation committed before the 15th day after publication "unless it is proved that the persons to whom the regulation may be applicable **were in a position to acquaint themselves with it**." |
| **Deemed knowledge** | **s. 20** — "**Every person is bound to acquaint himself with the regulations published in the Gazette officielle**", and they "**do not need to be specially pleaded**." |

**s. 21 — disallowance:** "The **National Assembly may** … **vote the disallowance** of any regulations or any prescriptions of a regulation." **s. 24** — same effect as a **repeal**.

### ★ s. 25 — what actually voids a regulation

> "**Failure to carry out an obligation prescribed under this Act does not invalidate a regulation unless the obligation is contemplated in one or another of sections 8, 10, 13 and 15 or in the second paragraph of section 18.**"

Only the **publication** duties are fatal: publish the draft (8) · the accompanying notice (10) · the reason for a shortened/omitted draft period (13) · publish the regulation (15) · publish the reason for accelerated force (18¶2). **Breaching the 45-day period (s. 11) does *not* invalidate**, nor does skipping the Justice examination (ss. 4–7).

## Why LégisQuébec is authoritative (R-2.2.0.0.2)

**s. 1** — the **Compilation of Québec Laws and Regulations** brings together the laws and regulations **in force** that are of a general and permanent nature (plus those in regular use), "**updated regularly and made available to the public as an official publication**."

**★ s. 7 ¶1 — the official-status provision:**
> "**Publication of the compilation, or of any extract from it, by the Québec Official Publisher, whatever the medium used, confers official status on the texts.**"

"**Whatever the medium used**" is the operative phrase — the **online** version is as official as print. That is the statutory basis for the "**Ce document a valeur officielle**" stamp on every LégisQuébec page.

**s. 4 ¶1** — "**Updates of the compilation become official as soon as they are published on an information technology-based medium** by the Québec Official Publisher." *Electronic publication is the trigger for officiality.*

**s. 17 — the switch-on:** laws published on the website — "**including the Civil Code and the Act respecting the implementation of the Civil Code**" — have **official status as of 1 January 2010**; regulations, **as of 1 January 2012**.

**s. 3 — updating** incorporates in-force amendments and removes spent provisions; and, **without changing substance**, may fix terminology, correct obvious errors, reconcile the French and English versions "**if the intended meaning is otherwise clear**", and **(5)** update "amounts, rates and other figures whose **indexation according to a predetermined index is expressly provided for in the law or regulation** in which they appear." *(So indexed figures ride along — but only where the instrument itself provides for indexation.)*

**s. 5 — the temporal rule:** "If the new provisions differ from the earlier provisions, the **new provisions prevail for events occurring on or after** the date the update comes into force, **and the former provisions, for events occurring before that date**." — **This is why you must read the version in force at the time of your events**, and why LégisQuébec exposes historical versions.

**s. 8** — a copy of the Compilation **in force on 1 April** is archived annually with the National Assembly and BAnQ. *(That's the "À jour au 1er avril" stamp.)* **s. 9** — departments and bodies giving public access to the laws they administer "**must only use texts taken from the official versions** published by the Québec Official Publisher."

**Consolidation** (ss. 10–12) is distinct from updating: initiated where necessary to prevent "a **serious problem of accessibility or intelligibility**", it involves "**no change to the substance**" but may renumber and reorganize, and **repeals** the earlier provisions on coming into force.

## The 1994 changeover (CCQ-1992) — brief

A **transitional statute** for the 1 January 1994 switch from the *Civil Code of Lower Canada* to the CCQ. **s. 1** — its object is "to **govern conflicts of legislation** resulting from the coming into force of the Civil Code of Québec."

The two foundational rules, read together:
- **s. 2 — non-retroactivity:** "The new legislation has **no retroactive effect; it applies only to the future**… it **does not alter the effects already produced** by a legal situation."
- **s. 3 — immediate effect:** "The new legislation **is applicable to legal situations which exist when it comes into force**… **it also governs the future effects of existing legal situations**."

**The formula:** old law governs **what has already happened**; new law governs **what happens from now on**, including future effects.

- **s. 4 — the contract exception:** for contracts existing at the changeover, "**the former legislation subsists where supplementary rules are used**" to fix the parties' rights — but the **new** law governs their **exercise, performance, proof, transfer, alteration or extinction**. **s. 5** — clauses contrary to the new **imperative** provisions are "without effect **for the future**."
- **s. 6 — prescription:** lengthened → new period applies, counting time already elapsed; shortened → new period applies but **runs from the coming into force**, unless the old period would in fact be shorter.
- **s. 9 — pending proceedings** continue under the **former** legislation, except where the judgment **creates rights**, or for **proof and procedure**.

**Title III is the part still used routinely:** **s. 423** — "the **concepts** introduced by the new Code **replace** the corresponding concepts of the former Code" (e.g. "corporation within the meaning of the Civil Code of Lower Canada" → "**legal person**"; "municipal corporation" → "**municipality**"). **s. 424** — "any **reference to a provision of the former Code is a reference to the corresponding provision of the new Code**" (e.g. arts. 1650–1665.6 CCLC → the **lease of a dwelling**). Whenever an old statute still speaks CCLC, Title III tells you what to read instead.