Bill 178 explained in plain English
Voluntary Blood Donations Act, 2014
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 40th 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 Voluntary Blood Donations Act, 2014, prohibits payment for blood donations and establishes enforcement mechanisms, while also amending other related legislation.
This bill, called the Voluntary Blood Donations Act, 2014, aims to ensure that blood and blood components are donated freely in Ontario. It makes it illegal to pay or offer payment to blood donors for their blood, and illegal for donors to accept such payments, with an exemption for Canadian Blood Services. The Act provides for inspectors to enforce these rules and allows for compliance orders. It also makes related changes to other Ontario laws, including the Laboratory and Specimen Collection Centre Licensing Act and the Health System Improvements Act, primarily to align definitions and licensing procedures with the principles of voluntary blood donation.
- Prohibits individuals and corporations from paying or offering to pay donors for blood, and prohibits donors from accepting payment for blood.
- Provides exemptions for Canadian Blood Services and its donors from the payment prohibition.
- Establishes the purpose of the Act to recognize blood donation as a public resource, that donors should not be paid except in exceptional circumstances, and that the integrity of the voluntary system must be protected.
- Allows the Minister to appoint inspectors to enforce the Act.
- Grants inspectors the power to enter and inspect blood collection facilities and related business premises.
- Empowers inspectors to examine records, demand production of documents, and question individuals.
- Allows the Minister to issue compliance orders if a blood collection facility is found to be non-compliant with payment prohibitions.
- Specifies penalties for contravening the Act, including fines for individuals and corporations.
- Allows the Minister to publish names of convicted individuals and details of their offences.
- Enables the Minister to make regulations to exempt persons or provisions from the Act.
- Makes consequential amendments to other Ontario Acts, including the Laboratory and Specimen Collection Centre Licensing Act and the Health System Improvements Act, concerning definitions and licensing related to blood collection facilities.
- Individuals who donate blood
- Corporations and businesses that own or operate blood collection facilities
- Canadian Blood Services
- The Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
- Inspectors appointed under the Act
- The general public
- Obligation not to pay or offer to pay blood donors for blood.
- Obligation for individuals not to accept payment for blood.
- Right of Canadian Blood Services and its donors to be exempt from payment prohibitions.
- Right of inspectors to enter and inspect facilities.
- Obligation for individuals and companies to comply with compliance orders.
- Right for a person served with a compliance order to provide evidence of compliance within 14 days.
- The Act comes into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.
- Individuals and corporations convicted of contravening the Act face fines: individuals up to $10,000 for a first offence and $50,000 for subsequent offences; corporations up to $100,000 for a first offence and $500,000 for subsequent offences.
- Contravention of the Act is an offence.
- Penalties include fines for individuals ($10,000 for first offence, $50,000 for subsequent) and corporations ($100,000 for first offence, $500,000 for subsequent).
- Inspectors can issue compliance orders.
- Failure to comply with a compliance order is an offence.
- The Minister may publish names of convicted persons and offence details.
- The definition of 'payment' is subject to regulations, which can clarify what constitutes payment or not.
- The Act allows for regulations to exempt persons or provisions from the Act, subject to conditions.
- The specific circumstances under which a blood donor might be paid (as an exception) are not detailed in the Act itself but are noted as a possibility.
- The commencement date of the Act is not specified and will be proclaimed by the Lieutenant Governor.
This is the main Act that prohibits payment for blood donations and sets out enforcement rules and penalties.
Source: Sections 1-16
Changes the definitions of 'laboratory' and 'specimen collection centre' and adds provisions related to licensing these facilities when they operate as blood collection facilities, allowing the Minister to refuse a licence if it's not in the public interest.
Source: Section 11
Repeals Section 18 of Schedule P of this Act.
Source: Section 12
Repeals subsection 12 (2) of this Act.
Source: Section 13
Amends Section 10 of this Act by removing the exclusion for blood or blood constituents.
Source: Section 14
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