Bill 77 explained in plain English
Ontario Consumer Watchdog Act, 2022
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 42nd 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
Bill 77 requires the Ontario government to develop and implement a plan to establish an independent consumer watchdog organization to oversee consumer protection in the province.
Bill 77, the Ontario Consumer Watchdog Act, 2021, requires the Minister of Government and Consumer Services to develop and implement a plan to create an independent consumer watchdog organization in Ontario. This organization would oversee consumer protection matters and be established in consultation with stakeholders and the public. The plan must outline the steps to establish the organization, its powers and duties (such as investigating complaints, examining business practices, publishing reports, and administering penalties), its relationship to other regulatory bodies, and other relevant matters. The Minister must publish the plan on a Government of Ontario website and must table a progress report in the Legislative Assembly within six months of developing the plan. The Act came into force on the day it received Royal Assent.
- Requires the Minister of Government and Consumer Services to develop and implement a plan to establish an independent consumer watchdog organization
- Specifies that the organization must be independent of government and responsible for overseeing consumer protection matters in Ontario
- Requires the plan to be developed in consultation with relevant stakeholders and the public
- Requires the plan to include the steps needed to establish the organization, including its powers and duties
- Identifies potential powers and duties for the organization: investigating businesses for compliance with consumer protection laws, investigating unfair practices of sectors or groups of businesses, investigating consumer complaints, administering penalties and remedies, publishing complaint statistics and investigation results, publishing public reports on consumer protection, and potentially assuming powers under other Acts including the Consumer Protection Act, 2002
- Requires the plan to address how the organization will relate to other regulatory bodies, including allowing its decisions to prevail over other regulatory bodies in specified sectors or for specified groups of businesses
- Requires the Minister to publish the plan on a Government of Ontario website
- Requires the Minister to prepare and table a progress report in the Legislative Assembly within six months of developing the plan, outlining progress in establishing the organization
- Consumers in Ontario - the organization would oversee consumer protection matters and investigate complaints on their behalf
- Businesses and other entities in Ontario - the organization would investigate their compliance with consumer protection laws and practices, and could administer penalties and remedies
- The Ontario Minister of Government and Consumer Services or their successor - responsible for developing and implementing the plan
- The Ontario Legislative Assembly - must receive and review the progress report
- Stakeholders and the public - to be consulted during development of the plan
- Other regulatory bodies - their relationship to the watchdog organization would be defined in the plan
- The Minister is obligated to develop and implement a plan to establish an independent consumer watchdog organization
- The Minister is obligated to consult with relevant stakeholders and the public when developing the plan
- The Minister is obligated to publish the plan on a Government of Ontario website
- The Minister is obligated to prepare and table a progress report in the Legislative Assembly within six months of developing the plan
- The planned watchdog organization would have the right to investigate businesses and other entities for compliance with consumer protection laws
- The planned watchdog organization would have the right to investigate consumer complaints
- The planned watchdog organization would have the right to administer penalties and determine remedies
- The planned watchdog organization would have the right to publish information about complaints and investigations
- The Act came into force on the day it received Royal Assent (the bill text does not specify the exact date of Royal Assent)
- Within six months after the plan is developed, the Minister must prepare and table a progress report in the Legislative Assembly
- The bill text does not specify the cost of developing, implementing, or operating the consumer watchdog organization
- The bill text does not specify any tax or fee impacts
- The bill authorizes the planned watchdog organization to administer penalties to businesses or other entities for failure to comply with consumer protection laws or practices, but does not specify what those penalties would be
- The bill authorizes the organization to determine remedies for consumers, but does not specify what remedies are available
- The bill does not specify the exact date that the Act received Royal Assent, though it requires the Act to come into force on that date
- The bill does not specify what constitutes being 'independent of government' or how this independence would be maintained
- The bill does not specify which stakeholders must be consulted or how public consultation would occur
- The bill does not specify the exact powers, duties, structure, or budget of the watchdog organization - these are to be determined in the implementation plan
- The bill does not specify what 'other regulatory bodies' exist or how conflicts between the watchdog organization and these bodies would be resolved
- The bill does not specify what penalties or remedies the watchdog organization may administer
- The bill does not specify what consumer protection laws or practices the organization would oversee
- The bill does not specify whether the watchdog organization would replace existing consumer protection bodies or work alongside them
- The bill uses the phrase 'such other matters as the Minister considers advisable' in describing plan content, meaning additional items could be included at the Minister's discretion
The planned consumer watchdog organization may assume powers and duties under this Act, as specified in the implementation plan developed by the Minister
Source: Section 3, item 2.vii
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