Bill 35 explained in plain English
Empowering Home Care Patients 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, 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
Bill 35, the Empowering Home Care Patients Act, 2016, amends the Home Care and Community Services Act, 1994, to shorten the time for home care agencies to respond to complaints, require appeal information in responses, and allow appeals to stay decisions that would terminate or reduce services.
This bill amends the Home Care and Community Services Act, 1994. It shortens the time for an approved home care agency to respond to complaints about the specific community services a person is entitled to receive, from 60 days to 30 days. It also requires the agency's response to include information on how to appeal the decision to the Health Services Appeal and Review Board. If an appeal of a decision would result in the termination or reduction of community services, the appeal itself will put the decision on hold. This change applies to appeals where the notice for a hearing is given on or after the bill receives Royal Assent.
- Shortens the time limit for an approved home care agency to respond to complaints about community services from 60 days to 30 days.
- Requires that the agency's response to a complaint include information about the process for appealing the decision to the Health Services Appeal and Review Board.
- Introduces a provision that an appeal to the Health Services Appeal and Review Board will automatically place a decision on hold if that decision would terminate or reduce community services provided to a person.
- Specifies that the new rule about appeals staying decisions applies to appeals where the notice for a hearing is given on or after the date the bill receives Royal Assent.
- Individuals receiving community services funded or provided under the Home Care and Community Services Act, 1994.
- Approved home care agencies that provide community services.
- The Health Services Appeal and Review Board (Appeal Board).
- Approved agencies must respond to complaints about community services within 30 days.
- Agency responses must include information about the appeal process.
- An appeal of a decision that would terminate or reduce services stays the decision.
- This Act came into force on the day it received Royal Assent.
- The provision regarding stays on appeal applies to appeals where the notice for a hearing was given on or after the day the Act received Royal Assent.
- The bill text does not specify what constitutes "community services" beyond what is implied by the context of the Home Care and Community Services Act, 1994.
- The bill text does not detail the specific "matters" for which an approved agency is required to establish a process for reviewing complaints, other than decisions about particular community services a person is entitled to receive.
This bill amends this Act to change the time limits for responding to complaints and to add information about appeals. It also adds a new section regarding stays on appeal.
Source: Bill 35, Section 1, 2, 3
Changes the time period for an approved agency to respond to complaints about community services from 60 days to 30 days.
Source: Section 1 (1)
Adds a requirement that notices or decisions about complaints must include information on how to appeal to the Appeal Board.
Source: Section 1 (2)
Changes a time period related to appeals from 60 days to 30 days.
Source: Section 2
Adds a new section (40.1) that states an appeal to the Appeal Board will stay a decision if that decision would end or reduce community 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