Ontario. Office of the Attorney General (1972- )

Identity area

Type of entity

Lower-level Ontario government office (type C)

Authorized form of name

Ontario. Office of the Attorney General (1972- )

Parallel form(s) of name

    Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules

    • Office of the Attorney General

    Other form(s) of name

      Identifiers for corporate bodies

      Description area

      Dates of existence

      1972-

      History

      In 1972, the Government of Ontario was substantially reorganized, and the various Departments that had existed prior to this time, were restructured as Ministries. In this process, the Department of Justice was restructured and renamed the Ministry of the Attorney General. The title of the head of the Department was also changed from Minister of Justice, back to that of Attorney General.

      Since 1972, the trend has been for the overall size of the Ministry to expand, while the Office of the Attorney General is reduced in relative size and responsibilities. In its current structure, the Office is responsible purely for the general administrative operations of the department, reported upon through the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. The Office generally has few direct program responsibilities, though a number of special initiatives and investigations do report directly to the Office of the Attorney General.

      There have been nine Attorneys General since 1972. These include: the Hon. Allan Lawrence (1971-72); the Hon. Dalton Bates (1972-74); the Hon. Robert Welch (1974-75); the Hon. John Clement (1975); the Hon. R. Roy McMurty (1975- 84); the Hon. Ian Scott (1984-90); the Hon. Howard Hampton (1990-1993); the Hon. Marion Boyd (1993-1995); and the Hon. Charles Harnick, since 1995.

      Places

      Legal status

      Functions, occupations and activities

      The Attorney General holds the senior office within the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General and is accountable to the Legislature for the Ministry's activities. The Office of the Attorney General is responsible for the political management of the Ministry and for acting as the conduit for direction from the cabinet level. The Office also acts as the official source of information from the Ministry back to the cabinet on specialised matters.

      Address

      Internal structures/genealogy

      General context

      Relationships area

      Related entity

      Ontario. Ministry of the Attorney General (1972-)

      Identifier of related entity

      AA72

      Category of relationship

      hierarchical

      Type of relationship

      Ontario. Ministry of the Attorney General controls Ontario. Office of the Attorney General (1972- )

      Dates of relationship

      1972-

      Description of relationship

      Related entity

      Ontario. Dept. of Justice. Office of the Minister and Attorney General (1969-1972)

      Identifier of related entity

      CA271

      Category of relationship

      temporal

      Type of relationship

      Ontario. Dept. of Justice. Office of the Minister and Attorney General is the predecessor of Ontario. Office of the Attorney General (1972- )

      Dates of relationship

      Description of relationship

      Access points area

      Subject access points

      Place access points

      Epithet

      Control area

      Authority record identifier

      CA272

      Institution identifier

      Rules and/or conventions used

      RAD: Rules for Archival Description, 2nd edn (2008)

      Status

      Approved

      Level of detail

      Dates of creation, revision and deletion

      2026-11-16: migrated to AtoM

      Language(s)

        Script(s)

          Sources

          Ministry of the Attorney General Annual Report, 1974

          Government of Ontario Telephone Directories, 1972-1996

          Maintenance notes

          Agency not found in Canadiana Name Authorities, 1996-12-24

          Archivist(s):
          R. Anger