National Registration August 19th, 20th, 21st was the headline in The Independent on July 11, 1940. This is how it was explained to the population.

"There is no halfway business about this national registration next month. The instructions are crystal clear - and so are the penalties for not obeying them.
When the time and place of registration are announced for your locality you go to the prescribed place, answer a questionnaire and sign your name to it. It’s as simple as that. And everybody in Canada 16 years and more, man or women, British subject or alien, with a few specific exceptions.

If you neglect to register or give the wrong answers, the maximum penalty is $200 or three months, or both. It’s the same thing if you try to impersonate anybody or advise someone not to register or otherwise get to the day.

Hon. J.G. Gardner, minister of national war services, explained the procedure in the house of commons as copies of the registration regulations were handed all members. At the same time the minister tabled a list of the registrars and assistant registrars for the various constituencies.

Mr. Gardiner said "There is one particular matter which because of the attention it has received in the public press , I should like to call to the attention of the members A single man is a person who was unmarried on July 15th.
"I am afraid some persons have placed more importance upon that than is warranted by the regulations.

After all, all it could possibly mean is that a man is considered single for the purposes of the first list which will be required by the militia department and from which men will be called up for training.

It will be found later on in the regulations that after a little time has expired each man who has married will have to report within 30 days and he will then be ????? for succeeding calls as a married person.

There had to be some definition of a single man for the purposes of the registration. Any other that is made for the date of called up will be made by the department of national defence rather than under these regulations.
Everyone who has a 16th birthday on or before the last day of the registration period will be called upon to register. Only exceptions are cloistered nuns, members of the naval, military and air forces of Canada on active service, and persons confined in mental institutions or pentitentaries or prisons.

Those reaching their 16th birthday after the registration period, those ceasing to belong to any of those groups mentioned above or persons returning to Canada after an absence which included the registration period must register within 30 days.

The registration is expected to continue for four days from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and be completed by the end of August.

The registration process itself consists merely of answering the list of questions on the registration card. These are written down for the registrant. The registrant then signs the card "thereby affirming the truth of the answers there recorded" the deputy registrar also signs the card.

If a person is ill or cannot otherwise come to the registration booth, a voluntary assistant deputy registrar may visit that person and complete the registration card in the usual way.

The Registrar for Rosetown-Biggar constituency is J.C. Douglas, Laura and Norman Douglas, Rosetown."

An ad in the 1st August 1940 newspaper showed the actual 1940 registration form and the card everyone received upon completing registration. The card was to be carried by the person at all times.


Source
The Independent, Biggar, Sask, July 11, 1940.