Bill 33 explained in plain English
Time to Care Act (Long-Term Care Homes Amendment, Minimum Standard of Daily Care), 2017
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 41st 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
The Time to Care Act 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.
This bill, titled the Time to Care Act, proposes to amend the Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007, to establish a minimum standard for daily care in long-term care homes. Specifically, it aims to ensure that, on average, residents receive at least four hours per day of combined nursing and personal support services. The bill also allows for this minimum to be increased by regulation.
- Establishes a minimum standard of four hours of nursing and personal support services per resident per day, averaged across all residents in a long-term care home.
- Allows for regulations to prescribe a higher minimum average number of hours for nursing and personal support services.
- Specifies how the average number of hours for nursing and personal support services is calculated, excluding time for vacation, statutory holidays, leaves of absence, sick time, training, or other activities not involving direct patient care.
- Operators (licensees) of long-term care homes in Ontario.
- Residents of long-term care homes in Ontario.
- Individuals providing nursing and personal support services in long-term care homes.
- The Lieutenant Governor in Council, through the power to make regulations prescribing higher minimum averages.
- Long-term care home licensees 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, or a higher amount if prescribed by regulation.
- The Act comes into force six months after the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The bill does not directly impose new taxes or fees, but meeting the minimum care hour requirement may lead to increased staffing or operational costs for long-term care homes.
- The bill text does not specify penalties for non-compliance with the minimum standard of daily care. It refers to the existing provisions within the Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007 for enforcement.
- The exact definition of 'direct patient care' for the calculation of hours is not detailed in the bill and is to be prescribed by regulations.
- The bill does not specify what happens if a long-term care home fails to meet the minimum average care hours, beyond referencing the general framework of the Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007.
- While the bill sets a minimum of four hours, the potential for regulations to increase this amount is noted, but the extent of any such increase is not specified in the bill itself.
This bill amends the Act to introduce a minimum standard for daily care in long-term care homes.
Source: Title of the bill and Explanatory Note
This subsection, which deals with care plans being based on resident assessment, needs, and preferences, is replaced with new wording.
Source: Section 1
Adds new subsections to establish the minimum standard of daily care and outline how the average hours are calculated.
Source: Section 2
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