Bill 37 explained in plain English
Liability for Climate-Related Harms Act, 2018
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 42nd 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 Liability for Climate-Related Harms Act, 2018, proposes to hold fossil fuel producers strictly liable for climate-related harms in Ontario based on their greenhouse gas emissions.
This bill, if passed, would establish the Liability for Climate-Related Harms Act, 2018. It aims to make fossil fuel producers strictly liable for harms in Ontario that are linked to climate change. The bill defines 'climate-related harms' broadly to include economic and physical losses, injury, death, and costs related to adaptation, emergency response, and public education. It sets out rules for determining a producer's responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions and how to prove the link between climate change and specific events. The Act would come into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Enacts the Liability for Climate-Related Harms Act, 2018.
- Defines "climate change" and "climate-related harms".
- Establishes strict liability for fossil fuel producers for climate-related harms occurring in Ontario if their greenhouse gas emissions are at a globally detectable level.
- Specifies how a producer's greenhouse gas emissions are to be determined, including emissions from production and use of fossil fuels.
- Allows for strict liability to apply to certain future costs related to adaptation and mitigation if they are deemed reasonably required.
- Provides rules for courts to consider when determining climate-related harms and their costs, including scientific data and historical experience.
- Sets a standard for proving causation between climate change and specific events, stating that doubling the likelihood of an event is sufficient.
- Grants the Lieutenant Governor in Council the power to make regulations regarding the determination of greenhouse gas emissions attributable to producers and whether these emissions are globally detectable.
- Specifies that the Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Fossil fuel producers
- Individuals and entities experiencing climate-related harms in Ontario
- The Province of Ontario (through its government and public infrastructure)
- Courts in Ontario
- Fossil fuel producers are subject to strict liability for climate-related harms if their greenhouse gas emissions are at a globally detectable level.
- The right for those experiencing climate-related harms in Ontario to seek recourse from liable fossil fuel producers.
- The power of the Lieutenant Governor in Council to make regulations concerning the determination of greenhouse gas emissions.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Fossil fuel producers may face financial liability for climate-related harms.
- The definition of 'climate-related harms' includes various costs such as economic loss, property damage, insurance costs, health costs, monitoring and research expenses, emergency response costs, infrastructure repair, and public education costs.
- The bill establishes strict liability, meaning a producer can be held responsible for harms regardless of fault, if the conditions (globally detectable greenhouse gas emissions) are met. The specific mechanisms for enforcing this liability and any associated penalties beyond compensation for damages are not detailed in the provided text.
- The precise methods for determining a producer's greenhouse gas emissions and whether they are at a 'globally detectable level' will be defined by regulations made by the Lieutenant Governor in Council.
- The bill does not specify the exact process for calculating damages or how the strict liability will be enforced in practice.
- The determination of 'reasonably required' costs for adaptation and mitigation (clauses 1(f) to (i) of 'climate-related harms') will be subject to court determination.
- The bill does not contain a list of specific fossil fuel producers that would be subject to the Act.
This bill would create a new provincial law with the stated purpose of establishing civil liability for harms caused by climate change.
Source: Preamble, Section 1-6
The Lieutenant Governor in Council is empowered to create regulations to define how a producer's greenhouse gas emissions are determined and whether they are globally detectable.
Source: Section 4
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