The Safe Night Out Act, 2025 amends Ontario’s Liquor Licence and Control Act, 2019 to require an evidence‑based, trauma‑informed sexual violence and harassment prevention training program developed by the Registrar and mandatory completion by specified staff at licensed premises. It also obliges every licensee and permit holder to maintain a written sexual violence and harassment policy and to display a sign confirming staff have completed the training.
Separately, the bill amends the Occupational Health and Safety Act to add an express definition of workplace sexual violence (including online conduct and acts targeting sexuality, gender identity or expression) and requires employers and all workers to complete Chief Prevention Officer–approved training on workplace sexual harassment. The measures set transition windows and give the Lieutenant Governor in Council authority to make transitional regulations.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill requires the Registrar to develop a trauma‑informed training program and makes that training mandatory for anyone who sells or serves liquor, provides security, or supervises such staff at licensed premises. It also amends the OHSA to define workplace sexual violence and to require employer and worker completion of Chief Prevention Officer‑approved workplace sexual harassment training.
Who It Affects
Liquor licence and permit holders, their employees (servers, bartenders), contracted security staff and supervisors at licensed premises, private‑sector employers across workplaces covered by the OHSA, and the Chief Prevention Officer and Registrar as training approvers/developers. Community supports named in policies may receive increased referrals.
Why It Matters
The bill creates statutory minimums for prevention training and written policies in the hospitality sector and imposes province‑wide training obligations under the OHSA, shifting compliance responsibility onto licensees and employers and centralizing content approval with provincial officials.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill inserts two new obligations into the Liquor Licence and Control Act, 2019. First, it directs the Registrar to design an evidence‑based, trauma‑informed sexual violence and harassment prevention training program covering what constitutes sexual violence and harassment in licensed settings, elements of consent, how to recognize someone at risk, and safe intervention techniques.
Second, it makes completion of that training mandatory for licensees and for people who sell or serve liquor, do security work, or supervise those workers. Licensees must also post a prominent sign stating that those staff have completed the training.
The Liquor Act amendments also require every licensee and permit holder to have a written sexual violence and harassment policy focused on reducing incidents and describing how staff will address occurrences and what community supports are available to victims. The bill includes a four‑month compliance window for persons already holding relevant positions at the time the Act comes into force and gives the Lieutenant Governor in Council authority to make transitional regulations to ease implementation.Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the bill expands the statutory definition of workplace violence to include workplace sexual violence and defines workplace sexual violence to cover sexual acts and acts targeting sexuality, gender identity or expression, whether occurring in person or online and regardless of any intimate‑partner context.
The Act’s policy requirements must expressly address workplace sexual violence and workplace sexual harassment. Employers must complete training approved by the Chief Prevention Officer and ensure every person in the workplace — including supervisors, committee members and workers — completes Chief Prevention Officer‑approved training on workplace sexual harassment.The bill ties these new obligations to concrete administrative actors: the Registrar builds the hospitality training, and the Chief Prevention Officer approves OHSA training.
It also sets the Act’s commencement at six months after Royal Assent, which creates a clear but finite timeline for regulators and employers to prepare training materials, communications, and compliance systems.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The Registrar must develop an evidence‑based, trauma‑informed prevention training program that covers consent, recognizing risk, and safe intervention in licensed premises.
Licensees and permit holders must ensure servers, security staff, and supervisors complete the training before beginning duties; existing personnel get a four‑month transition window after the Act comes into force.
Every licensee and permit holder must adopt a written sexual violence and harassment policy that explains incident response by staff and lists community supports for victims.
The OHSA will explicitly include workplace sexual violence (including online acts and conduct targeting sexuality, gender identity or expression) and require employers and all workers to complete Chief Prevention Officer‑approved workplace sexual harassment training.
The Act gives the Lieutenant Governor in Council power to make transitional regulations and sets commencement at six months after Royal Assent.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Registrar‑developed training and mandatory completion
This provision directs the Registrar to design an ‘evidence‑based, trauma‑informed’ training program and specifies the four content areas the program must include (what counts as sexual violence/harassment, consent, recognizing risk, and safe intervention). It then mandates that licensees and permit holders ensure specified categories of persons complete the training before performing relevant duties. Practically, the Registrar sets content standards and licensees carry the compliance burden; the section does not spell out assessment formats, minimum hours, or recertification frequency, leaving those operational choices to regulation or the Registrar’s program design.
Signage, civil‑liability clarification and transition
Licensees must display a prominent sign indicating that covered staff have completed the training. The section also adds a narrow civil‑liability clarification stating that completing the training alone does not, by itself, make a person civilly liable for an allegation of sexual violence or harassment. Finally, it grants a four‑month compliance deadline for people already holding covered roles when the Act comes into force. These mechanics create visible proof of compliance (the sign) and a short transition window, but they leave enforcement details—inspection, penalties, or proof standards—unaddressed.
Mandatory written sexual violence and harassment policy
Every licensee and permit holder must adopt a policy focused on reducing sexual violence and harassment and describing how incidents will be addressed by servers, security and supervisors, plus information about community supports. The requirement pushes licensees to formalize incident response and victim supports, but the bill does not prescribe minimum policy elements, reporting timelines, or confidentiality procedures—again delegating granular design to regulators or guidance from the Registrar.
Regulatory authority for transitional matters
The bill amends the Act’s regulation‑making section to authorize the Lieutenant Governor in Council to make transitional regulations for implementation. This is a catch‑all mechanism that allows the government to modify timelines, phase‑in obligations, or specify compliance mechanics without further primary‑law changes. It centralizes flexibility with the cabinet rather than prescribing specifics in the statute.
New definition of workplace sexual violence and policy content mandates
The OHSA changes add workplace sexual violence to the definition of workplace violence and define it to include sexual acts and conduct targeting sexuality, gender identity or expression, whether in person or online and regardless of intimate‑partner context. The Act also clarifies that workplace policies required under existing OHSA provisions must specifically address both workplace sexual violence and workplace sexual harassment, elevating those topics into required policy content rather than optional subjects.
Chief Prevention Officer‑approved training obligations
The bill requires employers to complete training approved by the Chief Prevention Officer and to ensure every person in the workplace—including supervisors and committee members—completes Chief Prevention Officer‑approved workplace sexual harassment training. This inserts a provincial approval gatekeeper for training content and assigns employers the duty to ensure universal worker participation; the statute does not detail enforcement mechanisms or penalties for non‑completion.
Timing
The Act comes into force six months after Royal Assent and is cited as the Safe Night Out Act, 2025. The six‑month window applies across both the Liquor Act and OHSA amendments and interacts with the four‑month transition for existing hospitality staff, creating staggered preparedness deadlines for regulators and employers.
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Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Patrons — the training and required policies aim to increase staff capacity to recognize risk and intervene, which could reduce incidents and improve on‑site responses for people at risk.
- Hospitality workers (servers, bartenders, security) — mandatory, trauma‑informed training provides standardized guidance on consent, intervention, and incident handling, potentially improving safety and workplace clarity.
- Survivor support and community service organizations — written policies must list community supports, which may increase referrals and create clearer local pathways for victim assistance.
- Regulators and public health advocates — the Act creates a province‑level standard and an approval mechanism (Registrar and Chief Prevention Officer) to ensure consistency in prevention training and workplace responses.
Who Bears the Cost
- Licensees and permit holders in the hospitality sector — they must procure or deliver training, develop and publish policies, install signage, and manage recordkeeping and staff compliance; small operators may face disproportionate administrative and financial burdens.
- Private‑sector employers covered by the OHSA — the requirement to ensure every person completes Chief Prevention Officer‑approved training increases training costs and administrative tracking obligations across sectors.
- Provincial agencies (Registrar and Chief Prevention Officer) — they must design, approve, and potentially monitor training content and delivery, requiring staff time, expertise, and budget.
- Security contractors and third‑party service providers — they must ensure individual employees comply with training timing requirements, which may affect contracting terms and costs.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill balances a public‑safety imperative—creating mandatory, standardized prevention training and policies to reduce sexual violence in licensed premises and workplaces—against operational and administrative costs, vague enforcement tools, and the risk that compliance becomes symbolic rather than substantive if regulators lack resources or the statutory design omits clear monitoring and remediation mechanisms.
The bill centralizes content control with two provincial actors—the Registrar for liquor‑premises training and the Chief Prevention Officer for OHSA training—without specifying delivery standards, minimum contact hours, assessment criteria or recertification intervals. That gap creates a reliance on administrative guidance and subsequent regulation, which can produce inconsistent roll‑outs if resources or timelines to develop approved curricula are tight.
The signage and written‑policy requirements produce visible compliance markers but do not create inspection, reporting, or penalty regimes in the statute; absent enforcement mechanics, compliance may become a checkbox exercise.
The civil‑liability clarification—that completing the required training alone does not create civil liability—is narrowly framed and may have ambiguous interaction with duty‑of‑care litigation. Plaintiffs could still argue that inadequate training design, insufficient staffing, or policy failures amount to negligence.
Finally, the bill broadens the scope of workplace sexual violence to include online acts and conduct targeting gender identity or expression, which is progressive in scope but raises practical questions about investigatory reach, evidence standards, jurisdiction over off‑duty or digital conduct, and privacy concerns when employers must investigate online incidents.
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