The current sheet
Printed 19:23 on your clock
A standing record of the country, printed in lines
Canada’s Daily keeps one continuous form: the dates that reset, the offices that publish them, and the lines that have gone stale. It is read top to bottom, the way it comes off the printer.
The desk prints one sheet each weekday. It carries national dates that replace themselves, the source that owns each date, and the mark that tells a reader whether the line still holds. There is no feed here and no order that rearranges itself while you read.
Green-bar stock explains the shape. Continuous form paper runs through a tractor feed as a single long sheet, so a break between sections is a perforation, not a page. A line that turns out to be wrong is not deleted. A new line prints under it, with the date of the change.
On this form
- 01Standing lines
- 02How a line is printed
- 03The four marks
- 04The weekly reset
- 05The paper and the intake
The standing lines
Each row is a date or a rule that returns on a schedule. The middle column shows what triggers the next print. The right column shows whether the line as printed still holds.
| Line | Resets | Mark |
|---|---|---|
| Federal fiscal yearDepartments plan, spend and report against it.Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat | 31 March, year end | CURRENT |
| Personal income tax returnFiling and payment for the previous tax year.Canada Revenue Agency | 30 April | CURRENT |
| Labour Force SurveyMonthly employment and unemployment estimates.Statistics Canada | About three weeks after the mid-month reference week | RESETS |
| Policy interest rateTarget for the overnight rate.Bank of Canada | Eight fixed announcement dates a year | RESETS |
| House of Commons sitting calendarSitting weeks, constituency weeks and adjournment.House of Commons | Set by the government, published by the House | CURRENT |
| GST/HST returnRemittance for the reporting period just closed.Canada Revenue Agency | One month after the period ends | CURRENT |
| Census of PopulationCounts by province, municipality and dissemination area.Statistics Canada | Every five years, next cycle 2031 | CURRENT |
| Provincial budgetsSpending plans tabled in the legislature.Provincial finance departments | Spring, dates vary by province | RESETS |
| General holidays under the Canada Labour CodeNine days, some fixed and some set by proclamation.Employment and Social Development Canada | Each calendar year | CORRECTED |
A row leaves the sheet only when the office that owns it stops publishing. A department renamed in a reorganization keeps its old line and gains a second one, which is how a reader can see the shape of a government change without reading a press release.
How a line reaches the sheet
Four steps, in this order. The desk does not skip the third one, even when the first two agree.
- 01
Read the instrument
A date is taken from the Act, the regulation, the budget table or the published calendar. Not from a summary of it. If the instrument has been amended, the amendment is read before the line is written.
- 02
Copy the figure twice
One reader copies the number and its unit. A second reader copies the same number from another part of the document. Where the two copies disagree, the line goes back to the source and waits.
- 03
Ask the office that owns it
A written note to the publishing office with one question: is this the date in force? The reply is logged with the name of the officer who gave it, because a verbal yes is worth keeping.
- 04
Print the expiry
Every line carries the date on which it will be replaced. A line without an expiry looks permanent, and most wrong dates on the public record were correct when someone first printed them.
The marks
Four marks sit at the right edge of a line. They print in black except for the rust mark, which is the only colour on the sheet and is kept for a line that has changed.
- CURRENT
- The line matches the source as printed today. It stays on the sheet until its reset date.
- RESETS
- A dated event will replace the figure or the rule. The reset date is printed in the row.
- FADED
- The line has outlived its own date. It stays visible so the record shows what was true then.
- CORRECTED
- A printed line was wrong. The correction sits beside the original, with the date it changed.
A rust mark is not a warning about the reader. It is the desk saying that the line as printed and the line as it now stands are two different things, and both are being shown on purpose.
The weekly reset
Friday afternoon the form is reset, not rebuilt. Lines whose expiry has passed take the faded mark. Lines corrected during the week keep both versions. The standing table is reprinted in the same order, because someone who learned the sheet on Monday should find the same line in the same place on Friday.
Two things never clear. A correction stays as long as the item it corrects stays, and a source note stays with its line even after the line goes stale. Everything else is free to disappear at the reset.
Reset note, week of the last print
CLEAREDFour provincial sitting dates, adjourned
REPRINTEDRate announcement schedule, six dates confirmed
HELDHoliday list, pending a proclamation
CORRECTEDNine general holidays, not eight
The correction above is the reason the holiday line carries a rust mark this week. The original count came from a summary page. The statute lists nine.
The paper
The form is printed in Ottawa on 15-inch green-bar stock, six columns to the inch, and filed in binders by month. The binders are the archive. Nothing is thrown out and nothing is rewritten by hand. A revised sheet goes on top of the old one, so a reader can lift the top sheet and see what the record looked like before.
That habit costs shelf space and settles arguments. When two readers remember a line differently, the binder decides, and the date of the reprint is printed at the foot of the page.
Send a line
Corrections, documents and questions come through one intake form. Quote the printed line, then say what is wrong or what is missing. The desk answers within two working days, and a correction that changes a line is printed with the date of the change.