Bill 84 explained in plain English
Medical Assistance in Dying Statute Law Amendment Act, 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
This Ontario bill amends various existing laws to address medical assistance in dying, providing protections, clarifying rights, and establishing related services and procedures.
Bill 84, also known as the Medical Assistance in Dying Statute Law Amendment Act, 2017, makes changes to several Ontario laws. These changes are related to medical assistance in dying (MAID). The bill amends acts to align with federal legislation on MAID, provides protections for those involved in administering MAID, clarifies how MAID affects legal rights and benefits, and establishes a care coordination service. It also makes specific changes to how coroners handle deaths related to MAID, how information about MAID is treated under freedom of information laws, and how MAID affects workplace insurance claims.
- Amends the Coroners Act to specify the notification and information-sharing requirements for physicians and nurse practitioners when a person dies as a result of medical assistance in dying.
- Amends the Excellent Care for All Act, 2010 to provide protection from legal action for care providers, physicians, nurse practitioners, and their assistants when acting in good faith for medical assistance in dying, with an exception for alleged negligence.
- Amends the Excellent Care for All Act, 2010 to state that receiving medical assistance in dying cannot be used to deny rights or benefits under contracts or statutes, unless the law explicitly states otherwise.
- Requires the Minister to establish a care coordination service to help patients and caregivers access information and services for medical assistance in dying and other end-of-life options.
- Amends the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to exclude identifying information related to medical assistance in dying from their application.
- Amends the Vital Statistics Act to clarify that certain coroner documentation requirements do not apply in cases of medical assistance in dying if the coroner determines an investigation is not needed.
- Amends the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 to deem a worker who receives medical assistance in dying as having died from the condition for which they were eligible for MAID.
- Adds definitions for "medical assistance in dying", "nurse practitioner", and "physician" to several amended acts.
- Establishes that the Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Physicians
- Nurse practitioners
- Coroners
- Patients seeking medical assistance in dying
- Caregivers
- Care providers (defined to include health service providers, retirement home licensees, and prescribed persons/entities)
- Employees of care providers
- Individuals involved in administering or intending to administer medical assistance in dying
- Individuals accessing or seeking benefits under contracts or statutes
- Workers and employers for workplace insurance purposes
- The public in relation to access to information about medical assistance in dying
- Obligation for physicians and nurse practitioners to notify coroners of deaths due to MAID and provide information.
- Obligation for others with knowledge of a MAID death to provide information to the coroner if requested.
- Right to protection from litigation for those acting in good faith for MAID, unless negligence is alleged.
- Right that MAID cannot be used to deny contractual or statutory rights and benefits, unless explicitly stated otherwise.
- Right to access information and services through the new care coordination service.
- Clarification that identifying information related to MAID is not subject to freedom of information requests under specific Acts.
- Deeming provision for workplace insurance where a worker receiving MAID is considered to have died from their underlying condition.
- The Act came into force on the day it received Royal Assent.
- The bill's amendments regarding protection from litigation in the Excellent Care for All Act, 2010, do not apply to actions based on alleged negligence.
- The provision that MAID cannot be invoked to deny rights or benefits applies unless an express contrary intention appears in the statute.
- The definition of 'care provider' in the Excellent Care for All Act, 2010, includes 'any other prescribed person or entity', meaning further regulations could expand this definition.
- The application of freedom of information laws to identifying information related to MAID is limited, but the definition of 'identifying information' includes information that could 'reasonably foreseeably' be used to identify an individual or facility.
- The review of the Coroners Act section related to MAID is required within two years of Royal Assent, but the outcome or process of this review is not detailed in the bill.
Requires physicians or nurse practitioners who provided medical assistance in dying to notify a coroner and provide necessary information. It also requires other individuals with knowledge of the death to provide information to the coroner upon request. It specifies that certain coroner investigation requirements do not apply to deaths from medical assistance in dying.
Source: Section 1
Adds definitions for 'medical assistance in dying', 'nurse practitioner', and 'physician'. Provides immunity from lawsuits for damages to physicians, nurse practitioners, care providers, and others assisting in good faith with medical assistance in dying, unless negligence is alleged. It also clarifies that receiving MAID cannot be used to deny rights or benefits under contracts or statutes, unless the law states otherwise. It also requires the Minister to establish a care coordination service.
Source: Section 2
States that the Act does not apply to identifying information related to medical assistance in dying.
Source: Section 3
States that the Act does not apply to identifying information related to medical assistance in dying.
Source: Section 4
Specifies that certain coroner documentation requirements do not apply to deaths from medical assistance in dying if the coroner has determined that the death should not be investigated.
Source: Section 5
Adds a definition for 'medical assistance in dying'. States that for the purposes of this Act, a worker receiving MAID is considered to have died as a result of the injury or disease for which they were eligible for MAID.
Source: Section 6
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