Bill 125 explained in plain English
Making Northern Ontario Highways Safer Act, 2019
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 42nd Parliament, 1st 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 bill would establish a new highway classification system and set specific timelines for snow removal after a snowfall for different classes of highways in Ontario.
Bill 125, also known as the Making Northern Ontario Highways Safer Act, 2019, proposes to amend the Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act. It would establish a system for classifying highways in Ontario into five classes based on factors like traffic volume and quality. The bill outlines specific timelines for snow removal from these highways after a snowfall, with stricter requirements for Class 1 highways, which include 400-series highways, the QEW, Highway 11, and Highway 17. For Class 1 highways, the pavement must be clear of snow within eight hours of the snowfall ending. Other classes have longer timelines and different standards, such as ploughing to a packed snow surface for Class 5 highways.
- Establishes a system to classify highways in Ontario into five classes (Class 1 to Class 5).
- Defines criteria for each highway class, including freeways, multi-lane highways, and highways based on traffic volume or quality.
- Specifically designates 400-series highways, the QEW, Highway 11, and Highway 17 as Class 1 highways.
- Sets standards for snow removal timelines for each highway class after a snowfall.
- Requires Class 1 highways to have bare pavement within eight hours of a snowfall ending.
- Sets varying snow removal standards and timelines for Class 2, 3, 4, and 5 highways.
- The Minister of Transportation (responsible for ensuring snow removal standards are met).
- Drivers using Ontario highways, particularly in Northern Ontario.
- The Ministry of Transportation (responsible for classifying highways).
- The Minister has an obligation to ensure snow removal occurs according to the new standards.
- Citizens have a right to expect certain snow removal standards on highways based on their classification.
- The Act comes into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.
- The specific criteria for classifying highways as Class 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, beyond those explicitly named, are determined by regulation and not fully detailed in the bill text.
- The exact definition of 'traffic volume or traffic quality' for Class 1 highway classification is not provided in the bill text.
- The bill does not specify penalties for failing to meet the snow removal standards.
Adds a new section (Section 100) to establish highway classifications and winter road maintenance standards.
Source: Section 1
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