EXPLANATORY NOTE
This Explanatory Note was written as a reader’s aid to Bill 283 and does not form part of the law. Bill 283 has been enacted as Chapter 27 of the Statutes of Ontario, 2021.
Schedule 1
Covid-19 Vaccination Reporting Act, 2021
Persons and entities that administer COVID-19 vaccines are required to provide certain information to the Ministry of Health. The use that the Ministry may make of the information is provided for.
Schedule 2
Health and Supportive Care Providers Oversight Authority Act, 2021
The Schedule enacts the Health and Supportive Care Providers Oversight Authority Act, 2021 and makes complementary amendments to several other Acts. The major elements of the Schedule are described below.
Part I sets out interpretive provisions that apply to the Act.
Part II establishes the Health and Supportive Care Providers Oversight Authority (the “Authority”). The Authority is governed by a board composed of directors appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council and directors appointed by the members of the board. The board appoints a Chief Executive Officer to discharge a number of duties and obligations under the Act. The objects of the Authority include administering the Act and the regulations and governing the health services and supportive care services provided by registrants. The Authority must enter into a memorandum of understanding with the Minister of Health, who is entitled to appoint a supervisor to assume control of the Authority if the Minister considers it to be in the public interest. The Authority must comply with policy directions issued by the Minister.
Part III establishes the process for applying for registration with the Authority. Applicants can apply to join the personal support worker class of registration or any other prescribed class of registration. Applicants must meet the prescribed criteria for registration and shall be refused registration if they meet the prescribed prohibited grounds for registration. Refusals to register an applicant and decisions to impose conditions on a registrant may be submitted to the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board for a written review.
Part IV establishes the rules that apply to registrations. Registrations are subject to conditions applied under the Act or the regulations and expire in accordance with the rules set out in the Authority’s by-laws. The Chief Executive Officer is required to establish a register of registrants and make certain information about them available to the public. Registrants are required to report to the Chief Executive Officer when they are found guilty of or charged with certain offences. They are also required to make a report if they have reasonable grounds to believe that another registrant or a member of a health profession college has sexually abused a person who receives health services or supportive care services. Persons who choose not to register with the Authority are not prohibited from providing health services or supportive care services, but they cannot hold themselves out as a registrant with the Authority or use any visual mark or other identifier established by the Authority for registrants.
Part V establishes the procedures for complaints and investigations. The Chief Executive Officer may investigate complaints or may appoint investigators on their own initiative. Investigators have a number of powers to investigate contraventions of the Act and the regulations. The Chief Executive Officer may take action as appropriate, which may include requiring additional training for registrants, applying conditions to their registration or referring contraventions of the prescribed code of ethics to the discipline committee. Urgent interim action may also be taken in certain circumstances. The discipline committee is established by the board to hear allegations of contraventions of the prescribed code of conduct. They may direct the Chief Executive Officer to revoke, suspend or impose conditions on a registration. Their decisions may be appealed to the appeals committee, which is also established by the board.
Part VI sets out a number of miscellaneous provisions, including provisions respecting fees, confidentiality, evidence and the service of documents.
Part VII sets out offences under the Act and establishes the penalty for committing an offence. It also empowers the court to take precautions to avoid the disclosure of personal health information in relation to investigations and prosecutions under the Act.
Part VIII sets out limitations on the liability of the Authority, the Crown, and various officers, employees, service providers, agents and other officials.
Part IX sets out the Lieutenant Governor in Council’s power to make regulations under the Act.
Part X sets out amendments to the Act and complementary amendments to various other Acts. The Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, 2006 is amended so that the Authority is a regulated profession for the purposes of that Act. The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care Appeal and Review Boards Act, 1998 is amended to provide the Health Professions Appeal and Review Board with the authority to make decisions in respect of the Authority. The Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 is amended to permit certain information to be communicated to the Authority and to require members of every College to report if they have a reasonable belief that a registrant of the Authority has sexually abused a patient. The Excellent Care for All Act, 2010, the Quality of Care Information Protection Act, 2016 and the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 are amended to extend the application of certain provisions of those Acts to the Authority.
Part XI sets out the commencement and short title of the Act set out in this Schedule.
Schedule 3
Medicine Act, 1991
The Medicine Act, 1991 is amended to provide for a class of members of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario to be known as “physician assistants”. Rules concerning the acts they may perform are provided for.
Schedule 4
Psychology and Applied Behaviour Analysis Act, 2021
The Psychology and Applied Behaviour Analysis Act, 2021 is enacted. The Psychology Act, 1991 is repealed, and the College of Psychologists of Ontario is continued under the name College of Psychologists and Behaviour Analysts of Ontario.
The scopes of practice of psychology and applied behaviour analysis are provided for.
Related amendments are made to the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991.
chapter 27
An Act to amend and enact various Acts with respect to the health system
Assented to June 3, 2021
CONTENTS
Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario, enacts as follows:
Contents of this Act
1 This Act consists of this section, sections 2 and 3 and the Schedules to this Act.
Commencement
2 (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), this Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
(2) The Schedules to this Act come into force as provided in each Schedule.
(3) If a Schedule to this Act provides that any provisions are to come into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor, a proclamation may apply to one or more of those provisions, and proclamations may be issued at different times with respect to any of those provisions.
Short title
3 The short title of this Act is the Advancing Oversight and Planning in Ontario’s Health System Act, 2021.
Schedule 1
Covid-19 Vaccination Reporting Act, 2021
Definitions
1 In this Act,
“information” includes personal health information within the meaning of the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004; (“renseignements”)
“Minister” means the Minister of Health, or such other Minister as may be assigned responsibility for the administration of this Act under the Executive Council Act; (“ministère”)
“Ministry” means the Ministry of the Minister; (“ministre”)
“personal health information” has the same meaning as in section 4 of the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004; (“renseignements personnels sur la santé”)
“regulations” means the regulations made under this Act; (“règlements”)
“vaccinator” means any person or entity who administers a vaccine to an individual in Ontario; (“vaccinateur”)
“vaccine” means a vaccine to protect against COVID-19. (“vaccine”)
Providing information re individual
2 Every vaccinator shall ensure that the following information is disclosed to the Ministry in respect of every individual to whom the vaccinator administers a vaccine and every individual to whom the vaccinator declines to administer a vaccine, unless the individual has not supplied the information to the vaccinator:
1. The name or names of the individual, including a legal name, an alternate name or an alias.
2. The telephone number or email address of the individual.
3. The individual’s date of birth.
4. The individual’s sex.
5. The individual’s health number within the meaning of the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004.
6. Any other information provided for in the regulations.
Providing information re vaccine
3 Every vaccinator shall ensure that the following information is disclosed to the Ministry with respect to each dose of a vaccine administered by the vaccinator:
1. Product name and manufacturer.
2. Date of administration.
3. Lot number.
4. Expiry date.
5. Dose number for the individual it was administered to.
6. The responsible public health unit for the geographic area in which the dose was administered.
7. The anatomical location of injection.
8. The route of administration.
9. Any other information provided for in the regulations.
Information re vaccinator
4 Every vaccinator shall ensure that the following information is disclosed to the Ministry with respect to the vaccinator:
1. The vaccinator’s name.
2...
