Bill 188 explained in plain English
Time to Care Act (Long-Term Care Homes Amendment, Minimum Standard of Daily Care), 2016
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
This bill amends the Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007, to mandate a minimum average of four hours of nursing and personal support services per resident per day in long-term care homes.
The Time to Care Act, 2016, aims to establish a minimum standard for daily care in long-term care homes. It requires that, on average, each resident receives at least four hours of nursing and personal support services per day. This minimum can be increased by regulation. The Act also specifies how these hours are calculated, excluding time spent on vacation, holidays, leaves, sick days, or training, and clarifies that the care plan must be based on resident needs and preferences. The law will come into effect six months after receiving Royal Assent.
- Establishes a minimum standard of four hours of nursing and personal support services per resident per day, calculated as an average across all residents in a long-term care home.
- Specifies that the calculation of these hours excludes paid time for vacation, statutory holidays, leaves of absence, sick time, training, or other activities not involving direct patient care.
- Requires that care plans be based on resident assessments, needs, and preferences.
- Allows for regulations to prescribe a higher minimum average number of hours for nursing and personal support services.
- Sets the commencement of the Act to six months after receiving Royal Assent.
- Residents of long-term care homes in Ontario.
- Licensees (operators) of long-term care homes in Ontario.
- The Ministry responsible for long-term care homes, through its regulation-making authority.
- Long-term care homes have an obligation to ensure that the average number of combined hours of nursing services and personal support services offered each day is at least four hours per resident.
- Residents have the right to receive, on average, at least four hours of nursing and personal support services per day.
- Licensees must ensure care plans are based on resident assessments, needs, and preferences.
- The Lieutenant Governor in Council may prescribe a higher minimum average for these services through regulation.
- The Act comes into force six months after the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The bill does not specify the exact process or timeline for how regulations to increase the minimum average hours will be developed or implemented.
- The bill states the calculation of hours does not include time for 'other purposes which do not involve direct patient care,' but the specific definition of what constitutes 'direct patient care' for calculation purposes may be further detailed in regulations.
- The bill does not specify penalties for non-compliance with the minimum care hours standard.
Introduces a new requirement for a minimum average of four hours of nursing and personal support services per resident per day, allows for this minimum to be increased by regulation, and clarifies how these hours are calculated.
Source: Section 8
Repeals the existing subsection and replaces it with provisions stating that care plans must be based on resident assessments, needs, and preferences, and must take into account the duty to comply with subsection 8 (5).
Source: Section 1
Adds a clause that allows for regulations to prescribe a higher minimum average number of hours for nursing and personal support services.
Source: Section 3
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