Royal assent

Royal assent is the formal approval that turns a bill passed by the legislature into an act. Federally it is granted by the Governor General (or a deputy) after a bill has passed both the House of Commons and the Senate; provincially it is granted by the Lieutenant Governor after passage by the legislative assembly.

Royal assent makes a bill law, but it does not necessarily make it operative: an act, or parts of it, may come into force on assent, on a fixed date, or on a date to be set by order in council. Researchers tracing legislative history use the date of assent to identify when an act was enacted, then check the coming-into-force provisions to determine when each part actually began to apply.