Bill 41 explained in plain English
Reducing Automobile Insurance Premiums by Eliminating Fraud Act, 2012
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 40th 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 Reducing Automobile Insurance Premiums by Eliminating Fraud Act, 2012, aims to reduce insurance costs by protecting whistleblowers of auto insurance fraud and enabling investigations into related fraudulent activities by health professionals, while also amending licensing requirements for independent health facilities.
This bill, called the Reducing Automobile Insurance Premiums by Eliminating Fraud Act, 2012, aims to reduce insurance costs by targeting fraud. It creates protections for people who report fraudulent activities related to auto insurance claims. It also allows for investigations into health professionals who might be involved in such fraud. Additionally, it amends the Independent Health Facilities Act to require that anyone holding a license under that Act must be a member of a health profession college.
- Provides protection against retaliation for individuals who disclose information about fraudulent activities related to automobile insurance claims to specified entities, such as insurance companies or law enforcement.
- Establishes that certain actions, like dismissing an employee or intimidating someone, are considered retaliation.
- Grants immunity from legal action for those who make disclosures or give evidence, unless they acted maliciously or in bad faith.
- Allows the Registrar of a health profession college to appoint investigators to look into potential fraudulent activity by college members concerning automobile insurance claims.
- Mandates that if an investigation suggests fraudulent activity in automobile insurance claims, the Registrar must notify a police officer.
- Requires investigators appointed under the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, to also determine if a member has been involved in fraudulent activity related to automobile insurance claims.
- Grants immunity from legal action to investigators for good faith actions or omissions in performing their duties.
- Creates an offence for contravening the section on whistleblower protection, with penalties including fines and/or imprisonment.
- Amends the Independent Health Facilities Act to require that any licensee must be a member of a health profession college.
- Defines "health practitioner" for the purposes of the Independent Health Facilities Act.
- Specifies that the Director under the Independent Health Facilities Act shall not issue, renew, or consent to the transfer of a license unless the applicant is a health practitioner, or if the applicant is a corporation, its shares are owned by one or more health practitioners.
- States that the requirement for licensees to be health practitioners applies to new licenses but not to the renewal of existing licenses prior to the commencement of this section.
- Individuals who disclose information about potential fraud in automobile insurance claims.
- Individuals or entities who retaliate against those who disclose information about potential fraud in automobile insurance claims.
- Members of health profession colleges potentially involved in fraudulent automobile insurance claims.
- Registrars of health profession colleges.
- Investigators appointed by health profession colleges.
- Insurance companies.
- The Insurance Bureau of Canada.
- Police officers.
- Licensees and applicants for licenses under the Independent Health Facilities Act.
- The Director appointed under the Independent Health Facilities Act.
- Right to protection from retaliation for disclosing information about automobile insurance fraud.
- Right to immunity from legal action for making disclosures or giving evidence, unless done maliciously or in bad faith.
- Obligation for Registrars to appoint investigators to look into potential fraud by college members.
- Obligation for Registrars to notify police if an investigation suggests fraud.
- Obligation for investigators appointed under the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 to also investigate auto insurance fraud.
- Obligation for licensees under the Independent Health Facilities Act to be members of a health profession college.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Offence provision includes a fine of not more than $25,000 for contravening whistleblower protection rules.
- Contravention of section 1 (whistleblower protection) is an offence punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 or imprisonment for up to 12 months, or both.
- The bill does not specify which "specified entities" individuals can disclose information to, other than those listed in Section 1(1)(a).
- The bill does not specify the exact process for the Registrar to determine "reasonable grounds" to appoint an investigator.
- The bill states that subsection (1) and (2) of Section 6.1 of the Independent Health Facilities Act (requiring licensees to be health practitioners) do not apply to the renewal of licenses issued before the Act came into force, but does not specify when these provisions will eventually apply to existing licenses if they are renewed.
Requires that licensees under this Act must be members of a health profession college. It also adds definitions and new sections related to licensee requirements.
Source: Section 7
Investigators appointed under this Act will also be required to investigate potential fraudulent activity in connection with automobile insurance claims.
Source: Section 3
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