Bill 114 explained in plain English
Municipal Action on Accessibility for Persons With Disabilities Act, 2015
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 41st Parliament, 1st 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 Municipal Action on Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities Act, 2015 requires Ontario municipalities to review their by-laws, report on potential accessibility barriers, and create a plan to amend them, as well as establish exemption processes and provide training, to ensure they do not impede accessibility improvements for people with disabilities.
This Ontario bill, the Municipal Action on Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities Act, 2015, aims to ensure that municipalities do not prevent individuals or businesses from improving accessibility to goods, services, and facilities for people with disabilities. It requires municipalities to review their own rules (by-laws and other instruments) to identify any that might hinder accessibility improvements. They must then consult with people with disabilities and report on their findings. Finally, municipalities must create and implement a plan to amend their rules, establish a process for exemptions for accessibility improvements, and provide training to their employees on disability rights. The bill defines key terms like 'accessible format' and 'accessible website'.
- Prohibits municipalities from taking actions that hinder people from improving accessibility to goods, services, facilities, and other items for persons with disabilities.
- Requires municipalities to review their by-laws and other instruments to identify any that impede accessibility improvements.
- Mandates municipalities to consult with persons with disabilities and representatives of service providers during their review.
- Requires municipalities to publish a report on their review findings, including feedback from consultations and a list of identified by-laws.
- Requires municipalities to develop and publish a plan detailing how they will amend by-laws to comply with the Act, establish an exemption process for accessibility improvements, and outline training for municipal employees on disability rights.
- Requires municipalities to implement their accessibility plan within one year of the Act coming into force.
- Defines 'accessible format' and 'accessible website'.
- Municipalities in Ontario
- Persons with disabilities in Ontario
- Individuals and businesses offering goods, services, facilities, accommodation, employment, buildings, structures, premises, or other prescribed items to the public
- Municipalities must not impede efforts to improve accessibility for persons with disabilities.
- Municipalities must review by-laws and instruments for potential accessibility barriers.
- Municipalities must consult with persons with disabilities and relevant representatives.
- Municipalities must make review results public in a report and on an accessible website.
- Municipalities must create and make public a plan to amend by-laws, establish an exemption process, and provide employee training.
- Municipalities must implement their accessibility plan.
- Individuals and businesses have the right to improve accessibility without municipal impediment, unless the municipality's action is for a pressing public interest objective that cannot be achieved otherwise.
- A process for seeking exemptions from municipal by-laws or instruments for accessibility improvement purposes must be established.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Municipalities must complete their review within six months of Royal Assent.
- Municipalities must make their review report public immediately upon completion.
- Municipalities must make their plan public within nine months of Royal Assent.
- Municipalities must implement their plan in its entirety no later than one year after the Act comes into force.
- The bill does not explicitly mention any new taxes or financial penalties. However, municipalities may incur costs related to conducting reviews, consultations, creating reports and plans, implementing changes, and providing employee training.
- The bill does not specify penalties for non-compliance by municipalities. The enforcement mechanism is not detailed in the provided text.
- The bill does not define what constitutes an 'impediment' to accessibility improvements.
- The specific details of the 'pressing and substantial objective that is in the public interest' for municipal exceptions are not elaborated upon.
- The bill does not specify the exact penalties or consequences for a municipality failing to comply with its requirements.
- The bill refers to 'other instruments' that municipalities must review, but does not provide a comprehensive list of what these instruments entail.
- The bill relies on regulations to prescribe certain items for the purposes of accessibility reviews, but these regulations are not detailed in the provided text.
Municipalities' ability to take certain actions will be restricted, as the bill prohibits them from impeding accessibility improvements.
Source: Section 2(1)
The City of Toronto's ability to take certain actions will be restricted, as the bill prohibits it from impeding accessibility improvements.
Source: Section 2(1)
This bill uses the definition of 'disability' from this Act and references its provisions regarding prescribed items for which accessibility can be improved.
Source: Section 1, Section 2(2)
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 is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
This bill is still moving through the process. When a recorded division is published, representative positions can be listed here.
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