Bill 208 explained in plain English
Financial Accountability Officer Amendment Act, 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
Bill 208 amends the Financial Accountability Officer Act, 2013 to expand the FAO's access to government records and information necessary for their duties.
This bill amends the Financial Accountability Officer Act, 2013. It changes the rules about what information the Financial Accountability Officer (FAO) can access. Specifically, it aims to give the FAO broader access to records and information that ministries and public entities use or possess, if the FAO believes it is necessary for their duties. It also makes some changes to references within the Act to reflect these amendments. The changes came into effect when the bill received Royal Assent.
- Amends the Financial Accountability Officer Act, 2013 to change the Financial Accountability Officer's (FAO) access to records.
- Removes a restriction that prevented the FAO from accessing certain Cabinet records.
- Grants the FAO the right to free access to all books, accounts, financial records, electronic data processing records, reports, files, and other papers, things, or property belonging to or used by a ministry or public entity if the FAO believes it is necessary to perform their duties.
- Updates references within the Financial Accountability Officer Act, 2013 to include the new access provisions.
- States that the Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The Financial Accountability Officer (FAO)
- Ministries of the Ontario government
- Public entities in Ontario
- The Financial Accountability Officer has the right to free access to specified records and property belonging to or used by ministries and public entities when deemed necessary for performing their duties.
- Access is subject to subsection (3) of section 12 of the Act.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The bill does not specify which records or property are considered 'necessary' for the FAO to perform their duties.
- The exact nature of the exceptions referred to in subsection (3) of section 12 of the Act, which may limit access, is not detailed within this bill text.
This bill amends several sections of the Financial Accountability Officer Act, 2013, primarily to expand the Financial Accountability Officer's (FAO) access to government records and information. It repeals subsection 12(2) and substitutes it with new wording that grants broader access, subject to certain conditions, and updates cross-references in other subsections to reflect these changes.
Source: Sections 1(1), 1(2), 1(3), 1(4), 1(5) of Bill 208 and Explanatory Note.
Changes the reference from 'subsections (2) and (3)' to 'subsection (3)' regarding access to information.
Source: Section 1(1) of Bill 208
Repeals the existing subsection and replaces it with new wording that grants the Financial Accountability Officer (FAO) free access to a broader range of records and property belonging to or used by a ministry or public entity, if the FAO believes it is necessary for their duties, provided it is subject to subsection (3).
Source: Section 1(2) of Bill 208
Modifies the wording to refer to 'anything under subsection (1) or (2)' instead of 'any information under subsection (1)'.
Source: Section 1(3) of Bill 208
Changes a reference from 'subsection (1)' to 'subsection (1) or (2)'.
Source: Section 1(4) of Bill 208
Changes a reference from 'subsection (1)' to 'subsection (1) or (2)'.
Source: Section 1(5) of Bill 208
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 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