Bill 39 explained in plain English
Truth in Government Act, 2010
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
The Truth in Government Act, 2010 mandates certain public sector entities in Ontario to publicly disclose contract, grant, expense, and position reclassification information online, and amends the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
The Truth in Government Act, 2010 requires certain public sector entities in Ontario to disclose specific financial and operational information online. This includes details about contracts, grants, travel and hospitality expenses, and position reclassifications. The Act also amends the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to include these entities as 'institutions' under that Act. The goal is to increase transparency in the public sector.
- Requires designated public entities to disclose information about contracts over $10,000.
- Requires designated public entities to disclose information about grants of $10,000 or more.
- Requires designated public entities to disclose travel and hospitality expenses.
- Requires designated public entities to disclose information about employee or retained person position reclassifications.
- Mandates that this information be posted on a website maintained by the public entity.
- Amends the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to include these public entities as 'institutions'.
- Establishes that the provisions of this Act prevail over other Acts and agreements unless specified otherwise.
- Allows the Lieutenant Governor in Council to make regulations related to the Act.
- Public sector entities in Ontario that meet the definition of 'public entity' under the Act.
- Individuals and bodies that enter into contracts or receive grants from these public entities.
- Employees and persons retained by public entities whose positions are reclassified.
- The public, who can access the disclosed information online.
- Public entities are obligated to maintain a website and post specific information quarterly.
- Public entities must post contract details (name of party, ID, consideration, dates, description) within 30 days of the end of the quarter or Royal Assent.
- Public entities must post grant details (name of recipient, amount, dates, description) within 30 days of the end of the quarter or Royal Assent.
- Public entities must post travel and hospitality expenses (individual, total, date, description, purpose, travel breakdown) within 30 days of the end of the quarter.
- Public entities must post position reclassification details (titles before/after, date, pay scale before/after, reasons) within 30 days of the end of the quarter.
- Information about contract performance (on time, on budget, or explanation for delays/overruns) must be posted within 30 days of the quarter end when the contract completion date falls.
- Information about grant value (whether value for money was achieved and reasons) must be posted within 30 days of the quarter end when the final payment date falls.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Information on existing contracts not fully performed at Royal Assent must be posted within 30 days of Royal Assent.
- Information on future contracts, grants, expenses, and reclassifications must be posted within 30 days after the end of each quarter year.
- Contracts with a total consideration of at least $10,000 trigger disclosure requirements.
- Grants of at least $10,000 trigger disclosure requirements.
- The Management Board of Cabinet may withhold funding from a public entity that fails to comply with disclosure requirements.
- Withheld funds may be permanently retained by the government if non-compliance continues past the fiscal year end.
- If a public entity fails to comply with sections 2 to 5, the Management Board of Cabinet can direct a ministry to withhold funding to that entity.
- Withheld funds will only be paid back if the entity complies.
- If non-compliance continues until March 31st following the direction to withhold, the entity loses entitlement to the withheld funds, which then become part of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
- The specific entities considered 'public entities' are defined by reference to the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, 1996, which may require consulting that Act for a complete list.
- The Act does not specify penalties beyond the withholding of funds.
- The Act allows for regulations to define terms, specify posting methods, and address other matters, the details of which are not included in the provided text.
Amends the definition of 'institution' to include certain 'public entities' as defined in the Truth in Government Act, 2010. Also amends subsection 60 (1) to allow for the designation of a head for these new institutions.
Source: Section 10
Defines 'public entity' by referring to the definition of 'public sector' in this Act.
Source: Section 1
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill does not have a published recorded division in the current official sources, so representative-by-representative vote counts are not shown.
No published representative vote breakdown
The current official sources do not publish a recorded division breakdown for this bill, so there is no representative-by-representative table to show.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced