Bill 86 explained in plain English
Healthy Decisions for Healthy Eating 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
Bill 86 requires certain large food service chains in Ontario to display calorie information, provide nutritional brochures, and indicate high sodium content for their menu items.
Bill 86, the Healthy Decisions for Healthy Eating Act, 2012, amends the Health Protection and Promotion Act. It requires food service premises that are part of a chain with at least five locations in Ontario and annual revenues over $5 million to display the calorie count for food and drink items. They must also make brochures available with nutritional information and indicate high or very high sodium content. The bill sets penalties for non-compliance, with fines for first, second, and subsequent offences. This Act comes into force eight months after receiving Royal Assent.
- Amends the Health Protection and Promotion Act to introduce new requirements for certain food service premises.
- Requires food service premises that are part of a chain with at least five locations in Ontario and annual gross revenues exceeding $5 million to display calorie information for food and drink items.
- Mandates that these food service premises make brochures containing nutritional information available to customers.
- Requires these food service premises to indicate high and very high sodium content for food and drink items.
- Establishes penalties for contravening these requirements.
- Sets the commencement date for the Act.
- Owners or operators of food service premises in Ontario that are part of a chain with a minimum of five locations in Ontario.
- Owners or operators of food service premises in Ontario with gross annual revenues exceeding $5 million.
- Customers of affected food service premises who will have access to calorie and nutritional information.
- Obligation to display the number of calories for food and drink items sold or served.
- Obligation to make nutritional information brochures available.
- Obligation to indicate high and very high sodium content.
- Right of customers to access this nutritional information.
- The Act comes into force eight months after the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Fines for non-compliance range from not more than $500 per day for a first offence to not more than $5,000 per day for subsequent offences.
- Contravention of the requirements is an offence.
- First offence: A fine of not more than $500 for each day or part of a day the offence occurs or continues.
- Second or subsequent offence: A fine of not more than $5,000 for each day or part of a day the offence occurs or continues.
- The exact definitions and methods for determining 'high sodium content' and 'very high sodium content' will be specified in regulations, as indicated by section 96 (3) (f.1) of the amended Act.
- The specific format and content of the nutritional information brochures are to be prescribed by regulations, as indicated by section 96 (3) (f) of the amended Act.
- The Act applies to chains with a minimum of five locations and revenues over $5 million; premises below these thresholds are not affected.
Adds new section 16.1 requiring specified food service premises to display calorie counts, provide nutritional brochures, and indicate high sodium content. It also amends section 96 to allow for regulations regarding the brochure content, section 100 to reference the new section 16.1, and section 101 to define penalties for offences under section 16.1.
Source: Section 1
Adds clauses that allow for regulations to be made regarding the form of nutritional information brochures and the method for determining and indicating high sodium content.
Source: Section 2
Inserts a reference to the new section 16.1, linking it to the Act's general penalty provisions.
Source: Section 3
Adds a new subsection (1.1) establishing fines for offences related to section 16.1, including not more than $500 for a first offence and not more than $5,000 for subsequent offences, for each day the offence continues.
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.
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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.
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