Update: September 1, 2022
Bill 2 passed its third reading.
Update: August 30, 2022
Bill 2 passed its second reading and will skip the committee phase to go straight to its third reading vote.
Update: August 29, 2022
The motion proposed by Michael Mantha (NDP, Algoma–Manitoulin) failed and the motion proposed by Andrea Khanjin (PC, Barrie–Innisfil) passed. Bill 2 no longer needs to go to committee and will instead be put to its second and third reading votes.
Update: August 25, 2022
A motion was proposed by Andrea Khanjin (PC, Barrie–Innisfil) to have this Bill, upon a successful second reading vote, skip the committee review phase and go immediately to its third reading vote the same day.
Michael Mantha (NDP, Algoma–Manitoulin) proposed an amendment to the motion that would send this Bill to the appropriate committee should it pass its second reading.
No votes on either the amendment nor the motion were held today.
City of Toronto Act
This is being changed to allow the TTC to enter into an agreement with a municipality or local board to allow that municipality or board to operate and/or maintain a local transit system. In cases where that local system is integrated with the TTC it doesn’t count as a sale or transfer, nor does it count as contracting work out in terms of any collective agreements involving the TTC.
Insurance Act
This will require automotive insurance companies to report instances of insurance fraud to the Chief Executive Officer or an agency chosen by the Chief Executive Officer. It also allows the Chief Executive Officer or agency to collect personal information about an individual for the purpose of assessing and detecting fraud.
Ontario Capital Growth Corporation Act
Not much to see here. Just renaming the Ontario Capital Growth Corporation as Venture Ontario. This will also change the name of this act to the Venture Ontario Act.
Ontario Loan Act
This is new. It will allow the Lieutenant Governor in Council to borrow in in any way outlined in the Financial Administration Act up to a total of $24.2 billion “as are considered necessary to discharge any indebtedness or obligation of Ontario or to make any payment authorized or required by any Act to be made out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund”. This is in addition to any borrowing authorized by any other Act.
This Act also has explicit expiry dates. No orders in council can be issued for borrowing after December 31, 2024 and the borrowing itself ends December 31, 2025. Note that borrowing can still happen after 2025 but only if an agreement was entered under the order in council before December 31.
Taxation Act
Few changes here. First up is changing the maximum tax credit for low-income individuals from $850 to $875.
There’s a slight change to a clause that exempts literary works published in an edition of less than 500 copies of a bound book from a tax credit. At the moment the Taxation Act says that the clause doesn’t apply to books published in 2020 or 2021, it’s being changed to just say it applies to anything published before 2020.
There’s a tax credit for “special expenditures for the purposes of the regional opportunities investment tax credit” that is supposed to end December 31, 2022. That’s being extended until the end of 2023.
There’s a new Ontario Seniors Care at Home tax credit, which is refundable and available starting this year. The credit is up to $1,500 and is based on the amount of tax credit for medical expenses deducted for the year. You can’t get this credit if you declared bankruptcy that year.
Note: I’ll admit I’m fuzzy on specifics about a lot of this part. Tax law gets complicated pretty quick and there’s a lot of formulas involved, so I might have missed something here.
Workplace Safety and Insurance Act
This is being changed so that the main offices of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board no longer need to be located in Toronto.
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