Bill 92 explained in plain English
School Boards Collective Bargaining 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
Bill 92, the School Boards Collective Bargaining Amendment Act, 2017, mandates central bargaining for all Ontario school boards and employees, introduces new designation processes for bargaining agencies, and modifies rules around strikes, lockouts, and collective agreement terms.
This Ontario bill, the School Boards Collective Bargaining Amendment Act, 2017, makes significant changes to how collective bargaining works for school boards. It moves from making central bargaining optional to making it mandatory for all school boards and employees. The bill also introduces new rules for how trade unions are designated as bargaining agencies, clarifies the roles of the Crown and employer bargaining agencies in local bargaining, and adds requirements for notice of changes to strikes or lockouts that could disrupt school operations. Additionally, it allows for agreements to extend the term of existing collective agreements under specific conditions and makes various other amendments to the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act, 2014, as well as some related acts.
- Makes central bargaining mandatory for all school boards and employees, rather than optional.
- Establishes new requirements for trade unions to be designated as employee bargaining agencies or to join a council of unions designated as an employee bargaining agency.
- Defines the role of the Crown and employer bargaining agencies in providing assistance and information related to local bargaining.
- Introduces new notice requirements for changes to strikes or lockouts that could lead to the withdrawal of instruction or closure of schools.
- Amends rules regarding the continuation of collective agreement terms, allowing for extensions under specific conditions.
- Clarifies the process for resolving conflicts or inconsistencies between central and local terms within a collective agreement.
- Continues the Education Relations Commission and outlines its role in advising the Lieutenant Governor in Council.
- Makes consequential amendments to other statutes, including the Education Act and the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, 1996.
- School boards in Ontario
- Trade unions representing school board employees
- Employees of Ontario school boards (teachers and other staff)
- Employer bargaining agencies
- Employee bargaining agencies
- The Crown (as represented by the Minister)
- The Minister of Education
- The Ontario Labour Relations Board
- Trustees' associations
- Employee bargaining agencies and employer bargaining agencies must not act in a manner that is arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.
- Employer bargaining agencies must co-operate in good faith with the Crown in preparing for and conducting central bargaining.
- Trade unions must advise the Minister in writing if they are certified or voluntarily recognized as a bargaining agent for a bargaining unit that is not a teachers' bargaining unit.
- Trade unions may need to apply to the Ontario Labour Relations Board for advice or an order to be designated as an employee bargaining agency or join a council of unions.
- School boards may be required by the Crown or their employer bargaining agency to inform them when a memorandum of settlement of local terms has been agreed upon.
- A change to the nature or scope of a strike or lockout that would result in the complete withdrawal of instruction or closure of schools requires advance notice.
- Central terms in a collective agreement prevail over local terms in case of conflict or inconsistency.
- This Act (Bill 92) came into force on March 27, 2017, the day it received Royal Assent.
- Certain sections of the Act come into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.
- The bill does not explicitly outline penalties for non-compliance. However, it does establish procedures for the Ontario Labour Relations Board to make orders regarding bargaining agency designations, which may have enforcement implications.
- The bill establishes the Ontario Labour Relations Board's role in resolving disputes regarding conflicts between central and local terms, including the authority to make orders.
- The specific details regarding information that must be included in a trade union's notice to the Minister are to be determined by regulation.
- The dates by which trade unions must apply for advice or orders from the Ontario Labour Relations Board, and the dates for certain notifications, are to be specified by regulation.
- The factors the Lieutenant Governor in Council may prescribe for the Ontario Labour Relations Board to consider when deciding on conflicts between central and local terms are not detailed in the bill.
- The specific details of regulations that may be made by the Lieutenant Governor in Council or the Minister are not provided in the bill text.
- The bill does not specify penalties for contravention of its provisions.
This bill extensively amends the existing Act, changing it from making central bargaining optional to mandatory, and introducing new provisions related to bargaining agency designations, the roles of the Crown and employer bargaining agencies, and rules for strikes, lockouts, and collective agreement terms.
Source: Bill 92 (Chapter 3 of the Statutes of Ontario, 2017)
Several provisions in the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act, 2014, are amended to reference or apply sections of the Labour Relations Act, 1995, particularly concerning bargaining for first collective agreements and the ratification of collective agreements.
Source: Sections 15(2), 33(1), 39(1), 41(6)
The definition of "public sector" in subsection 2 (1) is amended to include trustees' associations as defined in the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act, 2014.
Source: Section 27
The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations to determine if the inclusion of central terms in a first collective agreement affects rights or privileges guaranteed by Section 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867.
Source: Section 15(5)
The Lieutenant Governor in Council may make regulations to determine if the inclusion of central terms in a first collective agreement affects rights or privileges guaranteed by Section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Source: Section 15(5)
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