EXPLANATORY NOTE
This Explanatory Note was written as a reader’s aid to Bill 251 and does not form part of the law. Bill 251 has been enacted as Chapter 21 of the Statutes of Ontario, 2021.
Schedule 1
Accommodation Sector Registration of Guests Act, 2021
The Schedule enacts the Accommodation Sector Registration of Guests Act, 2021 and repeals the Hotel Registration of Guests Act.
The new Act requires hotels to keep a register of guests and record their names, residences and other prescribed information. Businesses in a prescribed class are also required to keep these registers.
Police officers and First Nations Constables may make an application to a justice for an order requiring the production of a specified portion of the register if there are reasonable grounds to believe that a person is currently a victim of human trafficking or is at imminent risk of being trafficked and that the information in the register will assist in locating or identifying them. They may make an urgent demand to view this information if there are reasonable grounds to believe the victim of human trafficking will suffer bodily harm or that the information recorded in the register will be destroyed within the time it would take to obtain an order.
A written report must be prepared when an urgent demand is made containing the reasons why the criteria for making the urgent demand were met. Chiefs of police must prepare annual reports on the total number of urgent demands made in the year and the number of human trafficking investigations to which they relate.
The Act sets out offences for failing to comply with these provisions and for making certain false statements.
The register provisions of the Hotel Registration of Guests Act continue to apply with respect to guests who were admitted in a hotel or business in a prescribed class before these new requirements came into force.
SCHEDULE 2
ANTI-HUMAN TRAFFICKING STRATEGY ACT, 2021
The Schedule enacts the Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy Act, 2021. The Act requires the Government of Ontario to maintain an anti-human trafficking strategy that aims to end human trafficking in Ontario and support persons who have experienced human trafficking. The Act requires that the strategy be reviewed at least every five years and that the Government of Ontario have regard to certain principles when reviewing the strategy.
The Act provides the Lieutenant Governor in Council with authority to make regulations relating to the dissemination of information about human trafficking, training on human trafficking and the reporting of instances of suspected human trafficking as well as relating to the collection and provision of information for specific purposes. The Act also provides the Lieutenant Governor in Council with authority to make certain regulations related to entities that post, publish or otherwise disseminate advertisements for sexual services and entities that operate platforms for such advertisements. Finally, the Act includes provisions for the enforcement of any regulatory requirements.
SCHEDULE 3
Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017
The Schedule makes various amendments to the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017:
1. Subsection 74 (2) of the Act currently provides for circumstances in which a child may be in need of protection for the purposes of Part V (Child Protection) of the Act. This subsection is amended to provide for additional circumstances that relate to child sex trafficking. Analogous circumstances are added to subsection 125 (1) of the Act, which sets out when a person has a duty to report a child who may be in need of protection to a children’s aid society.
2. The Act is amended to add a new section 77.1, which provides that a child protection worker or a peace officer may bring a child who is 16 or 17 to another location for the purposes of offering services and supports to the child where the worker or peace officer has reasonable and probable grounds to believe that the child has been sexually exploited as a result of being subjected to child sex trafficking and that another specified circumstance, related to the capacity of the child to make mature and independent judgements, exists.
3. Section 140 of the Act currently prohibits interference with a child who is subject to an order for society supervision, interim society care or extended society care. This section is amended to include a child who is subject to a temporary order for care and custody.
4. The penalties set out in the Act for contravening section 140 of the Act and for obstructing a child protection worker or a peace officer who is acting under various provisions of the Act, including the newly added section 77.1, are amended to increase the maximum fine as well as the maximum term of imprisonment.
5. Finally, the Act is amended with respect to procedures for prosecuting offences under Part V of the Act.
SCHEDULE 4
Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking Act, 2017
The Prevention of and Remedies for Human Trafficking Act, 2017 is amended in the following ways with respect to restraining orders that may be made under Part II of the Act:
1. Section 3 of the Act is amended to expressly provide that a person caring for a child victim under customary care as defined in the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017 may apply for a restraining order.
2. Section 4 of the Act is amended to specify that, in addition to the protection of a victim, the protection of any other person is a factor in the making of a restraining order under that section.
3. Section 5 of the Act is amended to provide that a restraining order may, in specified circumstances, be made or extended for a period of longer than three years.
chapter 21
An Act to enact, amend and repeal various Acts in respect of human trafficking matters
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 of its 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 Combating Human Trafficking Act, 2021.
Schedule 1
Accommodation Sector Registration of Guests Act, 2021
Definitions
1 In this Act,
“chief of police” means,
(a) a chief of police as defined in subsection 2 (1) of the Police Services Act, or
(b) a First Nations Constable who is in charge of a group of First Nations Constables described in clause (b) of the definition of “police force”; (“chef de police”)
“First Nations Constable” means a First Nations Constable appointed under the Police Services Act; (“agent des Premières Nations”)
“hotel” means a building, two or more connected buildings or a portion of a building or two or more connected buildings that,
(a) is mainly used for the commercial purpose of providing the travelling public with transient accommodation,
(b) contains at least six bedrooms or suites, and
(c) is not a boarding house, apartment house or other prescribed type of building; (“hôtel”)
“human trafficking” has the same meaning as in the Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy Act, 2021; (“traite des personnes”)
“Minister” means the Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries or such other member of the Executive Council as may be assigned the administration of this Act under the Executive Council Act; (“ministre”)
“officer” means,
(a) a police officer as defined in subsection 2 (1) of the Police Services Act, or
(b) a First Nations Constable; (“agent”)
“police force” means,
(a) a police force as defined in subsection 2 (1) of the Police Services Act, or
(b) a group of First Nations Constables who are employed by an entity that has an agreement with the Solicitor General; (“corps de police”)
“prescribed” means prescribed by the regulations; (“prescrit”)
“regulations” means the regulations made under this Act. (“règlements”)
Hotel register
2 (1) The owner and the manager of a hotel shall ensure that the hotel maintains a register.
Required information
(2) The owner and the manager of a hotel shall ensure that the following information is recorded in the register every time a guest or group of guests is admitted to occupy a bedroom or suite in the hotel:
1. The name of one of the guests who will occupy the bedroom or suite.
2. The primary residence of that guest or, if they have no primary residence, the municipality in which they usually reside.
3. Any other prescribed information.
Maintenance of information
(3) The owner and the manager of a hotel shall ensure that the information described in subsection (2) is maintained in the register for the prescribed period after it was recorded.
Prescribed businesses
3 (1) The owner or operator of a business in a prescribed class shall maintain a register.
Applicable provisions
(2) Subsections 2 (2) and (3) apply to the owner or operator of a business in a prescribed class subject to any modifications that may be set out in the regulations.
Production of register
Order to produce portion of register
4 (1) On application made in writing by an officer, a justice may make an order requiring the owner or manager of a hotel, or the owner or operator of a business in a prescribed class, to produce a copy of a specified portion of the register to the officer if the justice is satisfied on the basis of information...
