Uniform Vital Statistics Act (Renewal) Project

Overview

This project considers the current state of vital statistics legislation in Canadian jurisdictions, which, in many cases, have not been updated in many decades. In order to modernize these statutes, the Uniform Law Conference of Canada and BCLI are developed a uniform Vital Statistics Act to reflect the modern requirements of statistics use, the new technologies available for collecting information, and that the purpose of the data collection reflects modern and ethical practices.

Of particular importance was the need to modernize the current laws relating to change of sex designation applications, which are increasingly being held by courts and human rights tribunals as discriminatory. As a result, not only are the application process and standards different between provinces, but the procedures used by vital statistics offices to approve applications remain dated and ethically problematic. The Uniform Vital Statistics Act Project is intended to address these needs. It has the following objectives:

(a) to develop a modern approach to effectively collect vital statistics information, taking into account modern requirements of statistics use, new technologies, and ethical practices,

(b) to reconcile Canadian vital statistics legislation with judicial decisions which have ruled current sections dealing with change of sex designation applications discriminatory or unconstitutional, and

(c) develop a Uniform Vital Statistics Act which will address and reform the highlighted issues in the current legislation.

The project was completed in the fall of 2017.  An English and French version of the act with commentaries is now available on the ULCC website and can also be found below. A link to the final report of the working group, including a list of the committee members and drafting volunteers is also found below.