What is Bill 137? – Saskatchewan’s Parents’ Bill of Rights
The Saskatchewan Parents’ Bill of Rights covers a number of school-related topics, most controversially any child’s change in gender identity.
Provincial
Ontario Legislative Assembly – October 31, 2022 to November 3
New Bills First new Bill was Bill 28 – Keeping Students in School Act. This Bill would use The Notwithstanding Clause to override the Charter Right for unions to strike to force a new contract on CUPE and prevent them from striking or taking any legal action against the government. Michael Parsa proposed a Motion that, when Bill 28 next comes up it go directly to its second reading vote. The Motion would also see Bill 28 skip the committee phase, go to its third reading debate, then immediately go to its final vote. The Motion passed 78 in favour...
Bill 34 – Pandemic Preparedness Act
Bill 34 – Pandemic Preparedness Act is pretty simple and makes two changes to the Health Protection and Promotion Act.
Bill 33 – Maternal Mental Health Day Act
Bill 33 – Maternal Mental Health Day Act would make the first Wednesday of May Maternal Mental Health Day. The goal is to promote awareness of maternal mental illnesses, such as perinatal mood and anxiety disorder, that can be caused by pregnancies. There is an emphasis here on marginalized populations, such as LGBTQ2S+ people, members of Indigenous communities, etc. where existing issues such as addictions and substance use can make these problems worse.
Bill 32 – Black Mental Health Day Act
Bill 32 – Black Mental Health Day Act would see the first Monday of March declared Black Mental Health Day in an effort to raise awareness for the effects of systemic racism in healthcare. It would also update the Anti-Racism Act to require the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Long-Term Care, and Ontario Health to take all reasonable steps to collect information relating to the race of patients in Ontario. Finally, it amends the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care Act to add ensuring that health services are provided “in a culturally appropriate manner” to the list of the Minister’s duties.
Bill 31 – Murray Whetung Community Service Award Act
This Bill would create the Murray Whetung Community Service Award, which would be given each year to a member of each local Air, Army, and Sea Cadet corps who’s demonstrated exceptional citizenship and volunteerism.
Bill 30 – Menstrual Health Day Act
Bill 30 – Menstrual Health Day Act would declare May 28th as Menstrual Health Day. The goal here is to raise awareness of the importance of menstrual health, normalize menstruation, and promote access to menstrual products as a necessity for communities that can’t get them at affordable prices.
Bill 29 – Think Twice Before You Choose Natural Gas Act (Ontario Energy Board Amendment)
Bill 29 – Think Twice Before You Choose Natural Gas Act amends the Ontario Energy Board Act to make sure that the duty of gas distributors to provide gas distribution services along their pipelines does not restrict municipalities from imposing conditions on new residential connections. These conditions would be related to municipal by-laws intended to limit greenhouse gas emissions from residential consumers.
Bill 28 – Keeping Students in Class Act
Oh boy here’s a fun one. Bill 28 is using the Notwithstanding Clause to override CUPE’s constitutional right to collective bargaining to legislate a new collective agreement for them. There’s also measures in here to ensure no legal action can be taken against the government for passing this, no compensation needs to be handed out to anyone affected by it, and that any strikes must immediately end when Bill 28 takes effect. Note that the last bit of this Bill is the new collective agreement, which is a bit outside the scope of what I’m aiming to cover so I’ll be skipping that part. (I’m sure we’re going to hear plenty about what’s in the new agreement shortly anyway)
Ontario Legislative Assembly – October 27, 2022
Hello everyone! On Thursday we saw more debate on Bill 23, as well as the introduction of Bills 26 and 27!
Bill 27 – Protecting Agricultural Land Act
Bill 27 amends the Planning Act to make it so agricultural land cannot be rezoned, nor can the uses permitted be changed, without an Agricultural Impact Assessment. This applies to municipal zoning by-laws as well as the Minister issuing an MZO.
Bill 26 – Strengthening Post-secondary Institutions and Students Act
Bill 26 primarily focuses on preventing sexual abuse of students by staff in post-secondary institutions. It also has a small section for changing Ryerson University’s name to Toronto Metropolitan University and changes the size and composition of its Senate.
Ontario Legislative Assembly – October 26, 2022
Good evening everyone! Yesterday there was more debate around Bill 23 – More Homes, Built Faster Act. It’s still on its second reading and hasn’t progressed yet. I haven’t had a chance to do a deep dive on what it does yet, but you can find my more brief summary here. We also saw the introduction of Bill 24 – Health Care is Not for Sale Act (Addressing Unfair Fees Charged to Patients). Bill 24 puts in place protections from unfair fees when dealing with healthcare, mostly by designating them as professional misconduct and allowing for the suspension or revocation...
Bill 25 – Rent Stabilization Act
Original Bill here Bill 25 introduces a number of new protections for tenants, including new rules for rent that can be charged, new requirements for maintaining a residential complex, and access to legal representation for tenants who are facing a rent increase higher than the guideline determined under the Residential Tenancies Act.