Bill 46 is an omnibus Ontario statute that amends nine provincial Acts to speed up decision-making, streamline administrative processes and modernize select procedures. Key changes include a new short-term emergency power for the Minister of Agriculture to issue narrow, time-limited animal health response orders; authorization for electronic delivery of jury questionnaires; continuation of the Ontario SPCA as a corporation with regulatory powers (including retroactive regulations); repeal of a statutory ban on injecting CO2 for sequestration; and multiple technical and governance changes to the Provincial Offences Act and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act.
These edits are consequential for public agencies, regulated industries and court administration. They shift some discretion to ministers and chief officials for faster action (notably in animal-health emergencies and WSIB oversight), create administrative pathways for striking out convictions and electronic jury administration, and remove a statutory restriction on carbon sequestration activity — all of which raise implementation, transparency and access considerations for affected stakeholders.
At a Glance
What It Does
The Act adds a 72-hour, renewable temporary response order power to the Animal Health Act that can impose movement, housing and biosecurity measures across designated areas and authorize exemptions. It replaces mandatory mailed jury questionnaires with a system where mailed instructions can direct people to complete questionnaires electronically, with opt-in for a mailed copy and accommodation protections.
Who It Affects
Provincial ministries (Agriculture; Natural Resources and Forestry; Solicitor General), livestock producers and animal-health responders, court administrators and jury sheriffs, the Ontario SPCA, parties involved in provincial offences, carbon sequestration project proponents, and the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and its stakeholders.
Why It Matters
The measures prioritize speed and administrative flexibility over formal rulemaking in several domains: emergency animal disease control, court-facing processes, and agency governance. For regulated industries and legal administrators, the bill replaces slower regulatory pathways with executive orders and minister-directed arrangements that shorten response times but concentrate discretion.
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What This Bill Actually Does
Schedule 1 inserts a temporary response order mechanism into the Animal Health Act permitting the Minister of Agriculture, after advice from the Chief Veterinarian, to impose narrowly tailored emergency measures where delay would substantially increase risks to animal or human health. Orders can target parts of the province or specific facilities, impose movement and biosecurity rules, and allow the Chief Veterinarian to grant exemptions; they are time-limited and intended for immediate use.
Schedule 3 overhauls jury questionnaire procedures: annually the Jury Sheriff must either mail questionnaires and return envelopes or mail instructions that let recipients access and complete questionnaires electronically. Every recipient has a right to request a mailed copy and to seek accessibility accommodations; statutory response windows and deemed-receipt rules are established to keep the selection process on a schedule.Other schedules change statutory backdrops: Schedule 5 removes a specific prohibition on injecting carbon dioxide for sequestration under the Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Act; Schedule 7 continues the Ontario SPCA as a statutory corporation and gives the Minister authority to make governance and transitional regulations — some of which may operate retroactively.
Schedule 8 updates the Provincial Offences Act to allow defendants to apply, within 15 days of learning of a conviction entered without a hearing, to have the conviction struck out; clerks must strike out qualifying convictions or refer applications to a justice.Schedule 9 makes several WSIA adjustments: it narrows the definition of covered health care practitioners, prescribes how the Board must calculate apprentice average earnings by reference to journeyperson earnings (local or employer), removes the Lieutenant Governor in Council approval requirement for leasing real property by the Board, requires the Board to meet at least four times a year, and replaces the statutory strategic-plan requirement with a Minister-directed memorandum of understanding subject to periodic review. Across the Act, the common thread is shifting from multi-step rulemaking or external approvals toward faster, ministerially directed administrative action.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The new Animal Health Act power makes temporary response orders effective for up to 72 hours with a single possible extension of up to 72 more hours.
If the Chief Veterinarian grants an oral exemption under a temporary response order because delay would increase risk, that exemption must be put in writing within 48 hours.
Under the amended Juries Act the Jury Sheriff may mail instructions (instead of a paper questionnaire) to let recipients complete the questionnaire electronically; recipients have 30 days to submit and can request a mailed paper copy within 10 days of receiving the instructions.
Schedule 5 repeals subsection 11(1.1) of the Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Act, removing the statutory prohibition on injecting carbon dioxide into geological formations for the purposes of carbon sequestration.
The WSIA now requires the Board to calculate an apprentice’s average earnings by reference to journeyperson earnings — either the employer’s journeypersons in the same trade or, if none, journeypersons in the employer’s locality.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Temporary response orders for animal-health emergencies
This section adds section 23.1 to the Animal Health Act, authorizing the Minister, after advice from the Chief Veterinarian, to issue narrowly scoped emergency orders to prevent, detect, control or mitigate specific hazards. Practically, orders can restrict movement, mandate housing or biosecurity practices, target facilities or geographic zones, and authorize the Chief Veterinarian to issue exemptions. The provision limits orders to a maximum 72-hour period with one possible 72-hour extension, requires publication and targeted notice, and expressly excludes Part III of the Legislation Act (regulation-making procedures) from applying to these orders, which speeds issuance but reduces the formal regulatory checks normally associated with new rules.
Short-term adjustment to part-time provincial judge service and repeal of legacy provision
This Schedule temporarily raises the cap on part-time service for former provincial judges from 50% to 75% until April 1, 2024, allowing courts to retain more judicial capacity on a part-time basis. It also repeals section 87.1, eliminating a special continuation rule for judges assigned before 1990; that repeal and the temporary service cap are administrative measures intended to address capacity and legacy statutory clutter.
Electronic jury questionnaires with accommodation and opt-out safeguards
The Juries Act is rewritten so that the Jury Sheriff may either mail paper questionnaires or mail instructions that direct selected individuals to an electronic questionnaire. The statute preserves access protections: recipients can request an alternative format for accessibility or a mailed paper copy, and specific timelines (10-day windows for accommodation or mailed-copy requests; 30 days to submit the questionnaire) are established. The change modernizes selection logistics while embedding procedural steps to limit exclusion of those without internet access or with disabilities.
Continuation of the Ontario SPCA and retroactive regulation authority
The Schedule continues the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals as a corporation without share capital and vests the Minister with broad regulation-making authority over governance and transitional matters. Notably, regulations can be made retroactive to January 1, 2020, and the Act itself may be repealed later by proclamation, creating a framework for both continuation and future legislative adjustment. The mechanics give the government discretion to set corporate governance details by regulation rather than through the statute’s text.
Repeal of statutory ban on CO2 injection for sequestration
The Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Act has its definitions updated and subsection 11(1.1) — which formerly prohibited injecting carbon dioxide for sequestration for certain projects and forbade issuing permits for that purpose — is repealed. The effect removes a statutory barrier to subsurface carbon sequestration activity within the Act’s regulatory domain, shifting any future permitting or restrictions to other statutory or regulatory regimes.
New process to strike out convictions entered without a hearing
Schedule 8 replaces section 11 of the Provincial Offences Act with a process allowing defendants who were convicted without a hearing to apply, within 15 days of learning of the conviction, to have it struck out. Clerks must strike out qualifying convictions on affidavit evidence of certain listed circumstances (e.g., inability to attend a meeting or hearing or failure to receive notice) or forward the application to a justice. The clerk must also notify parties about subsequent procedural steps; the change streamlines reopening convictions in narrowly defined situations.
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board technical and governance changes
The WSIA amendments refine definitions (removing drugless practitioners), specify how to calculate average earnings for apprentices by referencing journeyperson earnings at the employer or local level, allow the Board to lease real property without Lieutenant Governor in Council approval, set a minimum of four board meetings per year, and replace the statutory strategic-plan requirement with a minister-directed memorandum of understanding subject to periodic review and ministerial amendment. Together these changes increase ministerial direction over the Board’s governance and simplify certain administrative approvals.
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Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Livestock and poultry industry — gains a mechanism for faster, targeted containment and biosecurity measures during suspected outbreaks, reducing lag between detection and action.
- Provincial ministries and emergency responders — receive a tool to act quickly without full regulatory processes when a rapid response is needed, shortening implementation time.
- Ontario SPCA — continuity as a statutory corporation and regulatory flexibility from delegated governance rules (including retroactive measures) gives it a predictable legal status and administrative tools.
- Court administrators and jury sheriffs — gain a more flexible selection workflow that can lower printing and mailing costs and accelerate assembly of jury rolls.
- Apprentices and injured workers — receive a clearer, standardized method for calculating average earnings under WSIA, tied to journeyperson pay scales which may simplify entitlement calculations.
Who Bears the Cost
- Producers and facility operators in affected zones — face immediate, binding movement and biosecurity measures under short-term orders and potential operational disruption without prior public rulemaking.
- People without reliable internet or with limited digital literacy — bear the risk of exclusion or extra administrative steps under an electronic-first jury questionnaire system despite opt-out and accommodation routes.
- Municipal and provincial court clerks — assume administrative duties to process strike-out applications within tight statutory windows and to coordinate notices and rescheduling where convictions are removed.
- Workplace Safety and Insurance Board — cedes planning autonomy to a ministerially directed memorandum of understanding and must comply with ministerial terms and review cycles, which could alter operational independence.
- Carbon sequestration project proponents and regulators — while the statutory prohibition is removed, proponents may face regulatory uncertainty as permitting and environmental oversight shift to other legal instruments.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is speed versus accountability: the Act removes procedural frictions so ministers and chief officials can act quickly (in animal-health emergencies, governance change, or administrative fixes), but that concentration of executive discretion reduces opportunities for public consultation, independent oversight and predictable rulemaking; the policy question becomes how to ensure rapid action without undermining transparency, equity and legal certainty.
The Act repeatedly trades formal rulemaking and layered approvals for faster executive action. The temporary response order in the Animal Health Act is deliberately short and geographically targeted, but the explicit exclusion of Part III of the Legislation Act means those emergency measures avoid normal regulatory consultation and publication procedures; that speeds response but reduces procedural transparency and public input.
The statutory design attempts to limit this by capping orders at 72 hours and requiring publication and notice, but the real test will be how often extensions and exemptions are used and how well written after-the-fact notices explain the factual basis for urgent measures.
The continuation of the Ontario SPCA with regulation-making power that can operate retroactively creates legal uncertainty for actions taken between 2020 and enactment: retroactive regulations are a powerful tool but can disrupt settled expectations. Similarly, repealing the explicit CO2 injection ban removes a statutory barrier but does not itself create a permitting framework; it shifts the locus of control to regulators and other statutes, producing a transition period of regulatory uncertainty for sequestration projects.
On the administrative side, converting jury questionnaires to an electronic-first system improves efficiency but raises digital-access and equity questions that the opt-out and accommodation rules try to address; success depends on local resourcing and clear outreach to vulnerable populations.
Finally, the WSIA governance changes replace a statutory strategic plan with a minister-directed memorandum of understanding subject to ministerial amendment. That strengthens ministerial control and simplifies oversight but may weaken independent planning and the Board’s ability to set long-term priorities insulated from short-term political direction.
Across schedules, the bill reduces procedural friction at the cost of concentrating discretion — implementation architecture, reporting and audit mechanisms will determine whether the trade-offs favor speed without sacrificing accountability.
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