Bill 204 explained in plain English
Homelessness Task Force Act, 2024
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 43rd 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
Bill 204 establishes a Homelessness Task Force in Ontario to advise the government on creating and maintaining a provincial homelessness strategy.
Bill 204 creates a new Homelessness Task Force for Ontario. The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing (or whoever is responsible for this law) must set up this task force within 60 days of the law coming into force. The task force will include members from housing and homelessness advocates, social service and healthcare workers, legal and justice workers, people who have experienced homelessness, and other groups the Minister thinks are appropriate. The task force must meet at least once every three months. Its main job is to help the Ontario government create, maintain, renew, and modernize a provincial homelessness strategy. The task force will also help different organizations and government agencies work together on homelessness issues, and support better ways to count homeless people in Ontario. The task force must give the Minister recommendations about policies, programs, timelines, ways to check progress, and ways to monitor and update the strategy. All recommendations must respect human rights laws. The task force prepares an annual report with its recommendations, which the Minister must publish on a government website. Within 60 days of receiving the annual report, the Minister must tell the Ontario legislature which recommendations the government plans to implement.
- Requires the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to establish a Homelessness Task Force within 60 days of the law coming into force
- Specifies that task force members come from housing and homelessness advocates, social service and healthcare workers, legal and justice workers, people with lived experience of homelessness, and other groups the Minister considers appropriate
- Requires the task force to meet at least once every three months
- Sets the task force's mandate to support creation, maintenance, renewal and modernization of a provincial homelessness strategy
- Requires the task force to facilitate collaboration between stakeholders including government, municipalities, and the private sector on homelessness
- Requires the task force to support development of strategies for better counting homeless people in Ontario
- Requires the task force to provide recommendations on policies, programs, implementation timelines, progress evaluation processes, and monitoring mechanisms
- Requires recommendations to be equity-oriented and comply with Ontario Human Rights Code and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
- Requires the task force to prepare an annual report with recommendations and submit it to the Minister
- Requires the Minister to publish the annual report on a government website
- Requires the Minister to inform the legislature within 60 days of receiving the annual report which recommendations the government recommends implementing
- The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing (responsible for establishing and overseeing the task force)
- Housing and homelessness advocates (appointed to the task force)
- Social service and healthcare workers (appointed to the task force)
- Legal and justice workers (appointed to the task force)
- Persons who have experienced homelessness (appointed to the task force)
- Municipalities (expected to collaborate with the task force)
- The Ontario legislature (must receive information about which recommendations will be implemented)
- The private sector (expected to collaborate with the task force on homelessness issues)
- People experiencing homelessness in Ontario (affected by policies and strategies developed from task force recommendations)
- The Minister must establish the Homelessness Task Force within 60 days of the law coming into force
- The Minister appoints all members of the task force from the specified groups
- The task force must meet at least once every three months
- The task force must provide recommendations to the Minister about the provincial homelessness strategy
- The task force must ensure recommendations are equity-oriented and comply with Ontario Human Rights Code and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
- The task force must prepare and provide an annual report to the Minister
- The Minister must publish the annual report on a government website
- The Minister must inform the legislature within 60 days of receiving the annual report which recommendations will be implemented
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent (date not specified in bill text)
- The Minister must establish the task force within 60 days after the law comes into force
- The task force must meet at least once every three months
- The Minister must inform the legislature within 60 days of receiving each annual report
- The bill does not specify the exact date the law will come into force, only that it is when it receives Royal Assent
- The bill does not specify how many people will be appointed to the task force or the specific process for selecting members
- The bill does not specify whether the government must actually implement the recommendations or only has to report on which ones it recommends implementing
- The bill does not provide details about funding for the task force or any financial allocations
- The bill does not specify what happens if the task force fails to meet the quarterly meeting requirement or other obligations
- The bill does not define what 'equity-oriented' means in the context of recommendations
- The bill does not require the government to explain why it is not implementing particular recommendations
Task force recommendations must comply with this law, meaning they must respect human rights protections
Source: Section 3(2)
Task force recommendations must comply with this charter, meaning they must respect constitutional rights protections
Source: Section 3(2)
The law allows responsibility for administering this Act to be assigned or transferred to another cabinet minister if needed
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.
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Vote Summary
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No published representative vote breakdown
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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