Bill 51 explained in plain English
Disclosure of Information Relating to the Protection of Children 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
The Disclosure of Information Relating to the Protection of Children Act, 2016, amends employment standards and public service laws to protect individuals who report child protection concerns and to extend whistleblower protections to certain child service providers.
This bill, called the Disclosure of Information Relating to the Protection of Children Act, 2016, aims to protect employees who report suspected child abuse or neglect, and to expand whistleblower protections for certain individuals working with children. It amends existing laws to ensure these individuals are protected from reprisal.
- Amends the Employment Standards Act, 2000, to protect employees from being penalized, dismissed, or intimidated if they seek advice about, make, or cooperate with reports of child abuse or neglect under the Child and Family Services Act.
- Amends the Public Service of Ontario Act, 2006, to define 'child and family service provider' and include employees, directors, officers, members, partners, or sole proprietors of such providers as public servants for the purposes of Part VI of that Act, which deals with disclosing wrongdoing.
- Amends the Public Service of Ontario Act, 2006, to extend protections against reprisal to public servants who disclose information related to the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth Act, 2007.
- Employees who report or seek to report child protection concerns.
- Employers and persons acting on their behalf.
- Public servants as defined under the Public Service of Ontario Act, 2006.
- Employees, directors, officers, members, partners, or sole proprietors of child and family service providers.
- Child and family service providers.
- Employees have the right to be protected from reprisal (intimidation, dismissal, penalty) for actions related to reporting child protection concerns.
- Public servants and certain individuals working for child and family service providers have the right to protection against reprisal for disclosing wrongdoing or specific information related to children's services.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The Employment Standards Act, 2000, is amended to prohibit employers or their representatives from intimidating, dismissing, or penalizing an employee, or threatening to do so, for actions related to reporting child protection concerns.
- The bill does not specify what constitutes a 'child and family service provider' beyond referencing definitions in the Child and Family Services Act.
- The specific details of what constitutes 'wrongdoing' under Part VI of the Public Service of Ontario Act, 2006, are not elaborated upon in this bill text.
- The bill does not specify any financial implications or new taxes.
Adds a section to protect employees from employer reprisal if they report suspected child abuse or neglect, seek advice about it, or cooperate with investigations related to such reports.
Source: Section 1 of the Bill
Adds a definition for 'child and family service provider' and includes these providers and their staff as public servants for the purposes of Part VI (disclosure of wrongdoing) of the Act.
Source: Section 2(1) and 2(4) of the Bill
Modifies the definition of 'public body' for the purposes of Part VI to include child and family service providers.
Source: Section 2(2) of the Bill
Adds provisions to extend protection against reprisal to public servants who disclose information relevant to the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth Act, 2007.
Source: Section 3 of the Bill
The bill refers to section 72 of this Act when outlining the employee protections related to reporting child protection concerns.
Source: Section 1 of the Bill
The bill refers to this Act when extending whistleblower protections to public servants who make disclosures related to the Provincial Advocate's functions.
Source: Section 3 of the Bill
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