Bill 11 makes targeted textual amendments across Nunavut statutes to reflect the demise of Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of King Charles III. The package replaces gendered references ("Her Majesty", "Queen's Printer", "Queen's Privy Council") with updated terms such as "His Majesty", "King's Printer", "the Crown" or other specified language, and updates a handful of substantive cross-references and definitions.
Although most changes are linguistic housekeeping, the bill includes a few provisions with practical effect—most notably a change that substitutes "the Government of Nunavut" for "Her Majesty" in one Vital Statistics provision, an updated jury-oath formulation, and a unified definition of the Sovereign in the Legislation Act. Those edits reduce ambiguity but also create drafting and operational tasks for departments, registries and institutions that must revise forms, oaths and templates.
At a Glance
What It Does
The Act amends multiple statutes to change references to the Crown following the monarchic succession: it replaces instances of "Her Majesty" with "His Majesty", "the Crown", or other specified wording, inserts a definition for "King's Printer", modernizes jury oath language, and adjusts selected statutory cross-references.
Who It Affects
Territorial departments, courts, registries (land titles, vital statistics), statutory publishers and any officeholders who took oaths under impacted Acts. Legal drafters and records custodians will handle the bulk of implementation work.
Why It Matters
Most changes are formal, preserving legal continuity after a change in monarch. A few substitutions—especially replacing a Crown reference with "the Government of Nunavut" or altering oath language—have practical implications for who exercises powers, how documents are worded, and what administrative updates are required.
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What This Bill Actually Does
Bill 11 is a corrective omnibus that systematically updates statutory language in Nunavut law to reflect the change in sovereign. The primary pattern is straightforward textual substitution: where statutes refer to "Her Majesty" or the "Queen's" institutions, the bill replaces those references with gendered equivalents for the new sovereign ("His Majesty"), with "the Crown", or with other specified terms.
The amendments are bilingual and applied across a long list of Acts and subsections.
Beyond one-to-one name swaps, the bill inserts a new, broader definition for "King's Printer" that explicitly includes any government or other official printer, and it modernizes the Jury Act by replacing archaic phrasing about jurors "keeping secret the Queen's counsel" with a direct duty to "keep secret the deliberations of the jury." The Legislation Act receives a consolidated definition of "His Majesty/Her Majesty/the Crown/the Sovereign" that references the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, Canada and other Realms and the Head of the Commonwealth, which is the normative statutory anchor for future references.Two changes warrant operational attention. First, subsection 45(1) of the Vital Statistics Act no longer refers to "Her Majesty" and instead names "the Government of Nunavut"—that substitution could affect who holds specific powers or responsibilities under that provision, and it may require internal administrative adjustments.
Second, the bill clarifies that persons who have already taken oaths affected by the amendments are not required to retake them, which preserves continuity for current office-holders while removing the need for mass re-swearing ceremonies.Finally, the Act applies a more generic conversion in many places—switching "Her Majesty" to "the Crown" or updating references like "Queen's Privy Council" to "King's Privy Council"—a drafting approach that reduces future gendered edits but creates a nontrivial compliance task: all affected departments and registries must update statutory forms, internal policies, public-facing documents and electronic templates to reflect the new language.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill adds a new, broader definition of "King's Printer" in the Evidence Act and replaces occurrences of "Queen's Printer" in paragraphs 39(1)(c), 39(2)(b), 39(3)(a) and subsection 39(5).
Section 32 of the Jury Act (English) is reworded to replace the archaic juror oath phrase with a plain duty to "keep secret the deliberations of the jury.", Subsection 1(1) of the Legislation Act is amended to replace the assorted definitions of "Sa Majesté/His Majesty/Her Majesty/the Crown/the Sovereign" with a unified definition naming the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, Canada and other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth.
Subsection 45(1) of the Vital Statistics Act is amended by replacing the phrase "Her Majesty" with "the Government of Nunavut," shifting the statutory wording that identifies the relevant authority in that provision.
The Act explicitly states that individuals who have taken oaths altered by these amendments do not need to retake those oaths because of the textual changes or the demise of the Crown.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
Every bill we cover gets an analysis of its key sections.
Evidence Act: King's Printer and other textual substitutions
This section removes the defined term "Queen's Printer" and replaces it with a definition of "King's Printer" that explicitly includes any government or other official printer, then updates several cross-references to use the new term. The effect is both terminological—matching the current monarch—and functional: the broader definition reduces future questions about which printing office qualifies as the King's Printer for publication or authentication purposes.
Income Tax Act table: flexible sovereign reference
The English version of the table following paragraph 1(7)(h) of the Income Tax Act is amended to read "His Majesty (or Her Majesty)", which permits either form in the statute. This is a drafting convenience to avoid having to change the table again if future sovereigns differ by gender; it does not alter substantive tax obligations but affects how printed statutory material will read and be cited.
Jury Act: modernizing juror oath language
The bill replaces an old-fashioned phrasing requiring jurors to "well and truly keep secret the Queen's counsel" with a direct obligation to "keep secret the deliberations of the jury." Practically, this narrows and clarifies the juror's duty by focusing on the deliberative process rather than a gendered, ambiguous formula—likely reducing interpretive disputes about scope of secrecy.
Justices of the Peace Act: update to oath of allegiance
Subsection 13(1) is amended to replace the specific reference to "Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second" with "His Majesty King Charles the Third (or the reigning Sovereign for the time being), his heirs and successors." The amendment plainly updates the named sovereign but preserves the existing structure of the oath, leaving its legal force intact.
Labour Standards Act: definition of 'general holiday' clarified
The definition of "general holiday" is restated to list statutory holidays (including Nunavut Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation) and to include "the day fixed by the Governor General for observance of the birthday of the reigning sovereign." This preserves the territory's linkage to the federally fixed sovereign-birthday observance while keeping the holiday list current.
Legislation Act: consolidated definition of sovereign and Crown
The bill repeals multiple discrete definitions ("Her Majesty", "His Majesty", "the Crown", etc.) and replaces them with a single, alphabetized definition that identifies the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, Canada and other Realms and Territories, and the Head of the Commonwealth. That consolidation aims to harmonize statutory interpretation across territorial law by providing one authoritative referent for all Crown language.
Vital Statistics Act: substitution with 'Government of Nunavut' in s.45(1)
Subsection 45(1) is changed to replace the territorial reference to "Her Majesty" with "the Government of Nunavut." Unlike most changes that only swap sovereign references, this edit substitutes the Crown with a territorial government entity in the operative text of the Act, which may affect how powers or responsibilities in that subsection are assigned or executed.
Mass conversion to 'the Crown' across numerous Acts
This section implements a broad drafting strategy: in a long list of statutes (Children's Law Act, Income Tax Act, Land Titles Act, Property Assessment and Taxation Act, Personal Property Security Act and others), occurrences of "Her Majesty" are replaced with "the Crown" and "Her Majesty's" with "the Crown's." That approach standardizes references to the Crown in neutral, institutionally descriptive terms rather than tying every provision to the current sovereign's gender.
Queen's Privy Council references updated to King's Privy Council
Selected provisions that reference the Queen's Privy Council are updated to the King's Privy Council (e.g., Jury Act paragraph 6(a), the Legislation Act's definition of "Governor in Council", and provisions in the Nunavut Elections Act and Plebiscites Act). These updates maintain the constitutional linkage but require parallel updates where executive actions are attributed to the Privy Council.
No requirement to retake amended oaths
The bill closes with an explicit non-retake clause: people who have already taken oaths that are amended by this Act do not have to retake them due to the textual changes or the Crown's demise. That language preserves the legal validity of existing oaths and removes administrative burdens associated with re-swearing.
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Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Territorial legislative drafters and counsel — the unified Legislation Act definition and generic use of "the Crown" reduce the need for future gendered edits and simplify statutory drafting conventions.
- Current office-holders and sworn officials — the Act confirms they do not need to re-swear oaths, preserving legal continuity and avoiding logistical and ceremonial burdens.
- Court system and juror administration — the modernized jury-oath language clarifies juror duties and may reduce interpretive disputes about what juror secrecy covers.
- Government publishers and statute users — the new "King's Printer" definition and language standardization reduce ambiguity about who may authenticate or publish official material.
Who Bears the Cost
- Territorial departments and agencies — they must update forms, policy manuals, online materials, signage and internal templates to match the amended statutory language.
- Registries and record-keeping offices (land titles, vital statistics, personal property security) — they face administrative work to revise statutory forms, reference guides and transaction workflows.
- Statutory publishers and legal database maintainers — they must correct statutes, indexes and precedent citations, which is time-consuming and requires quality control.
- Legislative and court staff — applying the new consolidated definitions may trigger interpretive questions in legacy instruments and require staff training or guidance memos.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is legal continuity versus operational and interpretive clarity: the bill aims to preserve continuity after a change in monarch through broad textual substitutions, but those edits can obscure or shift which institutional actor (the Crown, the King, the Governor in Council, or the Government of Nunavut) is intended to exercise a given power—solving one problem (gendered references) risks creating new questions about authority and administrative burden.
On its face this is a housekeeping bill, but textual substitutions can ripple into interpretation and administration. Replacing "Her Majesty" with "the Crown" typically preserves institutional continuity, but where the bill substitutes "the Government of Nunavut" for a Crown reference (Vital Statistics s.45(1)), that is a nontrivial change in language: "the Crown" and "the Government" are not always interchangeable in constitutional and administrative law.
Departments will need to confirm that the substitution does not unintentionally change who holds statutory powers, duties or liabilities under the amended provision.
The consolidation of sovereign-related terms in the Legislation Act reduces future drafting friction, yet it raises interpretive questions about the territorial territory/federal Crown interface. Some statutes tie specific powers to the Governor in Council or to the Crown in right of Canada rather than to the territorial government.
Converting references to neutral terms may simplify text but could obscure which level of government is meant unless contextual cross-references are maintained. Finally, the practical burden of implementation—updating dozens of statutory instruments, forms, oaths, and printed materials—will fall to under-resourced registry and departmental teams, with potential for inconsistencies and litigation if updates are applied unevenly.
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