Bill 34 – Pandemic Preparedness Act
Bill 34 – Pandemic Preparedness Act is pretty simple and makes two changes to the Health Protection and Promotion Act.
Bills
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)
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.
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.
Bill 24 – Health Care is Not for Sale Act (Addressing Unfair Fees Charged to Patients)
Bill 24 is focused on preventing patients from being charged “unfair fees” by designating it as professional misconduct or by revoking or suspending the licenses of independent health facilities.
tl;dr Bill 23 – More Homes, Built Faster Act
This is a massive Omnibus Bill, so while I work on doing a full summary on it here’s a shortened summary on what it should do.
Bill 22 – Poet Laureate of Ontario Amendment Act (French-language Poet Laureate of Ontario)
Bill 22 changes the Poet Laureate of Ontario Act (In Memory of Gord Downie) to allow for an English-language Poet Laureate and a French-language Poet Laureate, instead of just a single Poet Laureate. It also makes the necessary changes to ensure that the French-language Poet Laureate needs to have the majority of their work written in French and that at least two members of the selection panel are capable of evaluating the original French-language works.
Bill 21 – Fixing Long-Term Care Amendment Act (Till Death Do Us Part)
Bill 21 changes the Fixing Long-Term Care Act by adding the right of residents not to be separated from their spouse on admission, and to require the LTC home to provide accommodations for both of them so they can continue living together.