Bill 154 explained in plain English
Highway Traffic Amendment Act (Contraventions Causing Death or Serious Bodily Harm), 2015
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 41st 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 154 creates a new offence for causing death or serious bodily harm due to a traffic violation under the Highway Traffic Act, with potential fines, jail time, and licence suspension.
This bill, the Highway Traffic Amendment Act (Contraventions Causing Death or Serious Bodily Harm), 2015, creates a new offence under the Highway Traffic Act. It applies when a person commits a traffic violation and that violation causes, or contributes to causing, an accident that results in death or serious bodily harm. If found guilty, the person can face a fine of up to $5,000, jail time of up to 12 months, or both. Additionally, their driver's licence or permit may be suspended for up to 12 months. The bill states that if a person is imprisoned and their licence is suspended, the suspension period is extended by the length of the imprisonment.
- Amends the Highway Traffic Act to create a new offence related to causing death or serious bodily harm.
- Establishes penalties including fines, imprisonment, and licence suspension for this new offence.
- Specifies that licence suspension may be extended by the period of imprisonment ordered by the court.
- States that the Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Individuals who contravene the Highway Traffic Act or its regulations.
- Individuals who cause or contribute to causing an accident resulting in death or serious bodily harm while contravening the Act or its regulations.
- Courts that sentence individuals found guilty of this offence.
- Drivers in Ontario whose licences or permits may be suspended.
- Individuals are subject to a new offence if they contravene the Highway Traffic Act and cause death or serious bodily harm in an accident.
- Individuals convicted of this offence may face fines from $500 to $5,000.
- Individuals convicted of this offence may face imprisonment for up to 12 months.
- Individuals convicted of this offence may have their licence or permit suspended for up to 12 months.
- The court has the discretion to impose fines, imprisonment, or both, and to suspend a licence or permit.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Fines for the new offence range from not less than $500 to not more than $5,000.
- Conviction for contravention causing death or serious bodily harm can result in a fine of not less than $500 and not more than $5,000.
- Conviction can result in imprisonment for a term of not more than twelve months.
- A conviction may also lead to the suspension of the offender's licence or permit for a period of up to twelve months.
- If imprisonment is ordered along with licence suspension, the suspension period is increased by the period of imprisonment.
- The bill does not specify what constitutes 'serious bodily harm'.
- The bill does not define 'contributes to causing' in the context of an accident.
- The bill does not specify how the 'day it receives Royal Assent' is determined.
- The exact commencement date is not explicitly stated but is tied to Royal Assent.
Adds a new Part (Part X.0.1) to create the offence of contravention causing death or serious bodily harm, and outlines penalties.
Source: Section 1
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