Bill 9 explained in plain English
Ending Coal for Cleaner Air Act, 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
This bill amends the Environmental Protection Act to ban the use of coal for electricity generation at specified facilities and generally, with some exceptions, after December 31, 2014, and sets penalties for violations.
Bill 9, the Ending Coal for Cleaner Air Act, 2015, amends the Environmental Protection Act to prohibit the use of coal to generate electricity in Ontario at certain facilities after December 31, 2014. It specifies four particular generating stations where coal use must cease and also imposes a general prohibition on coal use for electricity generation, with specific exceptions for facilities where electricity generation is not the primary purpose or where coal is used with other by-products. The bill also clarifies that regulatory powers to exempt facilities from certain provisions do not apply to coal-fired electricity generation unless the facility meets the same criteria as the exceptions in the general prohibition. Penalties for contravening these provisions are those outlined in sections 187 (4) and (5) of the Environmental Protection Act.
- Amends the Environmental Protection Act by adding a new Part VI.1.
- Prohibits the use of coal to generate electricity at specific named generating stations (Atikokan, Lambton, Nanticoke, and Thunder Bay) after December 31, 2014.
- Generally prohibits the use of coal at any generation facility to produce electricity in Ontario after December 31, 2014.
- Provides exceptions to the general prohibition for facilities where electricity generation is not the primary purpose, or for facilities that use heat, steam, or by-product gas from such other facilities.
- Clarifies that regulatory exemptions for the Environmental Protection Act do not apply to coal-fired electricity generation facilities unless they meet the criteria for the general exceptions.
- Specifies that penalties for violating the coal use prohibition are those found in subsections 187 (4) and (5) of the Environmental Protection Act.
- States that the Act comes into force on a day named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.
- Owners and operators of specified generation facilities (Atikokan, Lambton, Nanticoke, and Thunder Bay Generating Stations).
- Owners and operators of other generation facilities in Ontario.
- The Minister of the Environment and Climate Change (implied by the scope of the Environmental Protection Act).
- Owners and operators of the four named generation facilities must ensure coal is not used to generate electricity after December 31, 2014.
- Persons are prohibited from using coal at generation facilities to produce electricity in Ontario after December 31, 2014, subject to exceptions.
- Owners and operators of facilities must ensure compliance with the prohibition on coal use.
- The prohibition on coal use at specified and generally at generation facilities applies after December 31, 2014.
- The Act comes into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.
- Fines outlined in subsections 187 (4) and (5) of the Environmental Protection Act apply to convictions for contravening the coal use prohibition.
- Convictions for contravening the prohibition on coal use are subject to the greater fines set out in subsections 187 (4) and (5) of the Environmental Protection Act.
- Specific subsections of the Environmental Protection Act (186(1), 187(3), 187(4), 187(5)) are applied to offences related to contravening the coal use prohibition.
- The exact date the Act comes into force is not specified, as it depends on proclamation by the Lieutenant Governor.
- The definition of 'generation facility' is referenced from the Electricity Act, 1998, rather than being defined within this bill.
- The application of the prohibition to facilities that produce a product other than electricity or steam, or that use by-products from such facilities, depends on whether the generation of electricity is the primary purpose of those facilities.
Adds a new Part VI.1 which prohibits the use of coal for electricity generation at specific facilities and generally, with exceptions, after December 31, 2014. It also affects penalty provisions.
Source: Part VI.1, Section 59.2, Section 59.3, Section 59.4
The greater fines outlined in these subsections will apply to convictions for violating the prohibition on coal use for electricity generation.
Source: Section 59.2 (3) and (4)
This section, which deals with regulatory exemptions, will not apply to a coal-fired electricity generation facility unless it meets the criteria for the general exceptions provided in the bill.
Source: Section 59.4
Provides the definition for 'generation facility'.
Source: Section 59.1
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 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