Bill 38 explained in plain English
Criminal Record Checks for Volunteers 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 Criminal Record Checks for Volunteers Act, 2010, aims to reduce the frequency and cost of criminal record checks for volunteers while maintaining public safety, with specific rules for when organizations can request these checks and how police provide them.
This bill proposes a new law, the Criminal Record Checks for Volunteers Act, 2010. It aims to encourage volunteering by making it less frequent and cheaper for volunteers to get criminal record checks, while still ensuring public safety. The bill states that organizations cannot require a criminal record check for a volunteer if they already have a recent one (less than a year old). However, organizations can ask for notice of pending criminal proceedings and their outcomes. Organizations can request a new check yearly or sooner if they have a reason to believe a new conviction has been added to the volunteer's record. Police forces must provide up to five extra copies of a criminal record check to the volunteer at no extra cost if requested. The Act does not apply in municipalities where police forces do not charge for these checks. The Act comes into effect on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Creates the Criminal Record Checks for Volunteers Act, 2010.
- Prohibits organizations from requiring a criminal record check for a volunteer if the organization already has a recent check (dated within the year before the volunteer starts) and it is the most recent one the volunteer has obtained.
- Allows organizations to require a volunteer to provide notice of pending criminal proceedings and their final dispositions.
- Requires that subsequent criminal record checks by an organization must not be dated less than one year after the most recent check received, with exceptions.
- Allows organizations to request a criminal record check at any time if they have actual notice or reasonable grounds to believe a conviction has been added to the volunteer's record, or if regulations prescribe certain circumstances.
- Requires police forces to provide up to five additional original copies of a criminal record check to a volunteer at no extra charge, whether the check is released to the organization or directly to the volunteer.
- States that the Act does not apply in municipalities where a police force does not charge any fee for releasing a criminal record check for a volunteer.
- Grants the Lieutenant Governor in Council the power to make regulations.
- Organizations that retain the services of volunteers.
- Volunteers.
- Police forces.
- Municipalities where police forces charge fees for criminal record checks.
- Municipalities where police forces do not charge fees for criminal record checks.
- Organizations are prohibited from requiring a criminal record check under certain conditions (Section 4(1)).
- Organizations may require notice of pending criminal proceedings and their dispositions (Section 4(2)).
- Organizations are prohibited from requiring a subsequent criminal record check dated less than one year after the most recent check, with exceptions (Section 4(3) and 4(4)).
- Police forces are required to provide up to five additional original copies of a criminal record check to a volunteer at no additional charge upon request (Section 5).
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent (Section 7).
- Police forces are required to provide up to five additional original copies of a criminal record check to a volunteer at no additional charge (Section 5).
- The Act does not apply in a municipality where a police force does not charge any fee for releasing a criminal record check for a volunteer (Section 3).
- The Act allows for regulations to specify authenticity requirements for criminal record checks and other circumstances for requesting checks (Sections 2, 4(4)(b), and 6).
This bill enacts a new law to regulate criminal record checks for volunteers.
Source: Preamble
This Act will come into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
Source: Section 7
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.
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