Bill 40 explained in plain English
Regulated Health Professions Amendment Act (Treating Spouses), 2013
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
Bill 40 amends the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, to define 'spouse' and allow for regulations that may exempt certain conduct between a health professional and their spouse from being considered sexual abuse.
This bill, the Regulated Health Professions Amendment Act (Treating Spouses), 2013, proposes to change the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991. It introduces a definition of 'spouse' that will apply to all regulated health professions. This definition includes a spouse as defined by the Family Law Act, a person living in a conjugal relationship outside of marriage, or someone meeting criteria set by regulations. The bill also allows for regulations to be made that could exempt certain conduct, behaviour, or remarks from being considered sexual abuse between a regulated health professional and their spouse, provided specific circumstances are met. These changes are intended to clarify situations involving health professionals and their spouses.
- Amends the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991.
- Adds a definition of 'spouse' to the Act, which applies to all regulated professions.
- Allows for the creation of regulations that can prescribe criteria for the definition of 'spouse'.
- Allows for the creation of regulations that can prescribe circumstances where conduct, behaviour, or remarks between a health professional and their spouse would not be considered sexual abuse.
- Members of regulated health professions in Ontario
- Patients of regulated health professionals
- The public, in relation to the regulation of health professions
- The definition of 'spouse' is expanded to include individuals in conjugal relationships outside marriage and those meeting regulatory criteria.
- Regulated professions' councils may establish regulations for circumstances exempting conduct between a member and their spouse from being considered sexual abuse.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The specific criteria for the definition of 'spouse' and the specific circumstances that would exempt conduct from being considered sexual abuse are not detailed in the bill text itself but are to be prescribed by regulations.
- The bill does not specify which regulated health professions this definition and exemption process will apply to, beyond stating it applies to 'all regulated professions'.
This bill changes the definition of 'spouse' within the Act and adds provisions related to exemptions for conduct between a health professional and their spouse from being considered sexual abuse. It also allows for regulations to be made regarding these matters.
Source: Sections 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the Bill and Schedule 2 of the Act
The definition of 'spouse' in this bill refers to the definition of spouse found in Section 1 of the Family Law Act.
Source: Section 1 of the Bill
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