Putting Consumers First Act (Consumer Protection Statute Law Amendment), 2017, S.O. 2017, c. 5 - Bill 59

• Jurisdiction: Ontario
• Bill Number: 59
• Date: 13 April 2017

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This Explanatory Note was written as a reader’s aid to Bill 59 and does not form part of the law. Bill 59 has been enacted as Chapter 5 of the Statutes of Ontario, 2017.

The Bill enacts a new Act, the Home Inspection Act, 2017, and amends three other Acts administered by the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services. For convenience, the new Act and the amendments are set out in separate Schedules. The commencement provisions for each of the Schedules are set out in the Schedules.

SCHEDULE 1
HOME INSPECTION ACT, 2017

Part I

Part I deals with definitions and interpretation.

Part II

The Lieutenant Governor in Council is allowed to designate a not-for-profit corporation as the administrative authority. If an administrative authority is designated, the administration of specified provisions of the Act and the regulations made under the Act is delegated to the authority and the authority is required to carry out the administration of the delegated provisions.

The Part includes mechanisms for government oversight, including requirements for an administrative agreement between the administrative authority and the Minister, annual and other reports by the authority, competency criteria for board members and oversight by the Auditor General.

The administrative authority is not an agent of the Crown. Employees of the authority are not Crown employees. There is no Crown liability for actions of the authority and the authority is required to indemnify the Crown for damages or costs.

The administrative authority is able to set forms and fees in accordance with processes and criteria approved by the Minister.

If an administrative authority is designated, it is required to appoint a director and registrar. Otherwise the Minister responsible for administering the Act appoints the director and the registrar.

Part III

Only individuals are allowed to perform home inspections, as defined, and the Act requires them to be licensed as home inspectors. The Act requires that persons who arrange or contract for a home inspection to be performed must be licensed as home inspection providers or must be sole proprietors who are licensed as home inspectors and who do not employ or retain any other licensed home inspectors.

Part IV

No licensed home inspector is allowed to perform a home inspection for a client unless there is a written contract for the inspection that a licensed home inspection provider has entered into with the client or that the inspector has entered into with the client, if the inspector is a sole proprietor who does not employ or retain any other licensed home inspectors. The contract must comply with the requirements prescribed by the regulations. The home inspector must perform the home inspection in accordance with the contract and provide a written report to the client on the inspection. If the home inspector has performed the home inspection under a contract that the client has entered into with a home inspection provider, the inspector shall also provide a copy of the report to the provider.

A licensed home inspection provider has to ensure that every home inspector whom the provider employs carries out his or her duties in compliance with the Act and the regulations. Providing false information is also prohibited.

Part V

The Act allows the registrar to deal with complaints made about licensees. In addition, a discipline committee and an appeal committee are established. If a committee finds that a licensee has breached the code of ethics established by a Minister’s regulation, the licensee is subject to a fine of up to $25,000 or a lesser prescribed amount.

The Act allows inspectors appointed by the registrar to conduct regulatory inspections without a warrant and investigators appointed by the director to conduct both an investigation with a warrant and searches in exigent circumstances.

The director may apply to court for a compliance order. The Act also creates offences.

Part VI

The Act contains general provisions dealing with such matters as the preservation of secrecy, service of documents and the setting of fees by the Minister.

The Minister may make regulations establishing a code of ethics, governing the jurisdiction of committees and in areas prescribed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council. The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations dealing with a broad range of matters to regulate the industry, including requiring the registrar to disclose specified information and records to the public.

Parts VII and VIII

The Act makes complementary amendments to the Licence Appeal Tribunal Act, 1999 and the Ontario Labour Mobility Act, 2009 and repeals the Ontario Association of Home Inspectors Act, 1994.

SCHEDULE 2
Amendments to Other Acts

The Schedule amends the Collection and Debt Settlement Services Act, the Consumer Protection Act, 2002 and the Payday Loans Act, 2008 and expands the regulation-making powers in each Act. Some significant amendments are the following:

Collection and Debt Settlement Services Act

The Schedule amends the Act to permit administrative penalties to be imposed against a person who has contravened or is contravening a prescribed provision of the Act. The new sections establish rules respecting the making of an order imposing an administrative penalty, the appeal of such orders, the enforcement of such orders and related matters.

Consumer Protection Act, 2002

At present, the length of the cooling-off period in subsection 43 (1) of the Act during which a consumer can cancel a direct agreement for the supply of a water heater or other prescribed goods or services is 20 days after the consumer receives a written copy of the agreement, unless the regulations made under the Act prescribe otherwise. The Schedule amends the length of the cooling-off period for that type of direct agreement to 10 days after the consumer receives a written copy of the agreement, as is the case for all other direct agreements.

The Schedule amends the Act to create restrictions and related regulation-making powers respecting the soliciting or entering into of prescribed direct agreements at a consumer’s dwelling or at any other prescribed place.

The Schedule adds a new Part to the Act: Part VII.1 regarding agreements for cashing government cheques. The new Part provides for a limit on the fee that may be imposed for cashing a government cheque. A supplier who cashes a government cheque for a consumer must also provide the consumer with a statement setting out prescribed information with respect to the cashing of the cheque.

Payday Loans Act, 2008

A licensee is prohibited from operating an office to carry on business as a licensee at a location if a local municipality or the City of Toronto has passed a by-law prohibiting the operation of offices within a defined area that includes the location or if a local municipality or the City of Toronto has passed a by-law limiting the number of offices that are allowed to operate in a defined area that includes the location and the limit has been reached.

At present, section 34 of the Act allows a borrower to pay the full outstanding balance under a payday loan agreement at any time without any prepayment charge or penalty. The Schedule extends that right so that the borrower may prepay any part of the outstanding balance.

The Schedule amends the restrictions respecting concurrent or replacement payday loan agreements and respecting the making of more than one payday loan between the same borrower and different lenders. The Schedule also permits the Registrar to conduct inspections if the Registrar has reasonable grounds to believe that a person or an entity is acting as a lender or loan broker while not licensed.

chapter 5

An Act to enact a new Act with respect to home inspections and to amend various Acts with respect to financial services and consumer protection

Assented to April 13, 2017

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 or any portion of a Schedule to this Act provides that it is to come into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor, the proclamation may apply to the whole or any portion of the Schedule, and proclamations may be issued at different times as to any portion of the Schedule.

Short title

3 The short title of this Act is the Putting Consumers First Act (Consumer Protection Statute Law Amendment), 2017.

Schedule 1
Home Inspection act, 2017

CONTENTS

PART I
INTERPRETATION and Application

Interpretation

1 (1) In this Act,

“administrative agreement” means the agreement described in subsection 4 (1); (“accord d’application”)

“administrative authority” means the corporation that the Lieutenant Governor in Council has designated as such under subsection 3 (1); (“organisme d’application”)

“client” means a person who enters into a contract to receive a home inspection; (“client”)

“delegated provisions” means the provisions of this Act and the regulations for which the administration is delegated to the administrative authority under subsection 3 (2); (“dispositions déléguées”)

“employ” means to employ, appoint, authorize or otherwise arrange to have another person act on one’s behalf, including as an independent contractor; (“employer”)

“equity share” means, in respect of a corporation, a share of a class or series of shares of a corporation that carries a voting right either under all circumstances or under circumstances that have occurred and are continuing; (“action participante”)

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