A first draft and proposed statute which has been formally tabled before a legislative assembly for consideration.
A bill becomes a statute when the legislative assembly has given it the requisite number of approval votes.
Each time a bill is put to a vote, it is called a "reading", as in First Reading, etc., until its final reading, such as "third reading", at which time it is passed and awaits coming into force (as a statute or law) upon a date of the government`s choosing, unles the bill (now a "statute") specifies a date at which it comes into force.
When a bill is introduced in Canada's House of Parliament, it is assigned a number based chronological order of introduction in its House of origin except that government bills are numbered from one to 200 while private members' bills start from #201.