Bill 70 explained in plain English
Regulated Health Professions Amendment Act (Spousal Exception), 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 70 amends the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, to allow health regulatory colleges to create an exception to the definition of sexual abuse for conduct between a professional and their spouse, if that conduct does not occur during professional practice.
Bill 70, also known as the Regulated Health Professions Amendment Act (Spousal Exception), 2013, amends the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991. It introduces a potential exception to the definition of "sexual abuse" in the context of regulated health professionals. This exception allows for conduct, behaviour, or remarks between a health professional and their spouse that might otherwise be considered sexual abuse, provided the conduct does not occur while the professional is practicing. However, this exception only applies if the professional's regulatory college passes a regulation to adopt it. The definition of "spouse" is also clarified to include both legally married spouses and individuals in a conjugal relationship for at least three continuous years.
- Amends the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991.
- Introduces a new subsection (5) to Section 1 of Schedule 2 (Health Professions Procedural Code) that provides a conditional exception to the definition of sexual abuse.
- Adds a definition for 'spouse' in relation to a member for the purposes of the new exception.
- Amends Section 95 (1) of Schedule 2 to allow Colleges to pass regulations adopting the spousal exception.
- Members of regulated health professions in Ontario.
- Patients of regulated health professionals.
- Colleges governing regulated health professions in Ontario.
- Health professionals may be subject to the definition of "sexual abuse" unless a college adopts the spousal exception.
- If a college adopts the exception, a health professional's conduct with their spouse may not be considered sexual abuse if it does not occur during practice.
- Colleges have the power to create regulations to adopt this spousal exception.
- The Act received Royal Assent on November 6, 2013.
- The Act came into force on the day it received Royal Assent.
- The application of the spousal exception is conditional on each individual College making a regulation to adopt it. Without such a regulation, the exception does not apply.
- The bill does not specify a timeframe for Colleges to make these regulations.
The bill amends this Act by adding new provisions related to the definition of sexual abuse and the ability of regulatory colleges to adopt a spousal exception.
Source: Section 1 and Section 3 of the Bill
Specifically, it amends Section 1 of the Code by adding a new subsection (5) that outlines the conditions for the spousal exception to sexual abuse and a new subsection (6) that defines 'spouse' for the purpose of this exception. It also amends Section 95 (1) to allow Colleges to make regulations adopting this exception.
Source: Section 1 of the Bill
This Act is referenced for its definition of 'spouse' within the new definition provided in Bill 70.
Source: Section 1(6)(a) 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.
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Vote Summary
This bill does not have a published recorded division in the current official sources, so representative-by-representative vote counts are not shown.
No published representative vote breakdown
The current official sources do not publish a recorded division breakdown for this bill, so there is no representative-by-representative table to show.
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