Bill 266 explained in plain English
Support Workers Pay Act, 2021
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
The Support Workers Pay Act, 2021, if passed, would establish minimum pay and travel payments for support workers, require the development of training and retention programs, and create a Support Worker Wage Review Commission, contingent on legislative appropriation.
This bill, if passed, would be called the Support Workers Pay Act, 2021. It would set the minimum pay for support workers based on temporary pandemic pay. It would also require employers to pay support workers for travel between work sites, with the rate determined by a new Support Worker Wage Review Commission. The Minister of Long-Term Care would be required to develop programs for training, recruitment, retention, and ensuring paid on-the-job learning and full-time employment after apprenticeships. A Support Worker Wage Review Commission would be established to review pay and set travel payment rates. This Act would come into force on the day it receives Royal Assent, but would only apply if money has been appropriated by the Legislature for its purposes.
- Defines "support worker" to include various roles providing personal support services.
- Establishes that the minimum pay for support workers will be the amount received when including temporary pandemic pay.
- Requires entities employing support workers to provide travel payments per kilometre travelled between work sites, with the amount to be set by the Support Worker Wage Review Commission.
- Mandates the Minister of Long-Term Care to develop programs for training, education, professional development, recruitment, and retention of support workers.
- Requires programs to ensure support workers are paid while learning on the job and can secure full-time positions after training or apprenticeship.
- Establishes the Support Worker Wage Review Commission.
- Specifies the composition of the Commission, aiming for representation from sector management, policy experts, and support workers or their representatives.
- Assigns functions to the Commission, including reviewing support worker pay every two years, making pay recommendations, reviewing and setting travel pay rates, and reviewing travel pay rates every two years.
- States that the Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Includes a condition that certain provisions of the Act only apply if money has been appropriated by the Legislature.
- Support workers (defined as persons delivering personal support services, including home support workers, home help workers, community support workers, long-term care home support workers, retirement home support workers, residential support workers, and homemakers).
- Entities that employ support workers.
- The Minister of Long-Term Care.
- The Support Worker Wage Review Commission.
- Sector management (as potential appointees to the Commission).
- Sector policy experts (as potential appointees to the Commission).
- Support worker representatives (as potential appointees to the Commission).
- Support workers have a right to minimum pay that includes temporary pandemic pay.
- Support workers have a right to travel payments per kilometre travelled between work sites.
- Entities employing support workers have an obligation to provide travel payments.
- The Minister of Long-Term Care has an obligation to develop specific programs for support workers.
- The Support Worker Wage Review Commission has an obligation to review pay, make recommendations, and set travel payment rates.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The Support Worker Wage Review Commission must set the amount of travel pay no later than 12 months after the day this section comes into force.
- The Act states that provisions regarding minimum pay, travel payments, and program development do not apply unless money has been appropriated by the Legislature for these purposes.
- The application of key provisions of the Act (minimum pay, travel payments, program development) is conditional on money being appropriated by the Legislature.
- The exact amount of travel payments is not specified in the bill but will be set by the Support Worker Wage Review Commission.
- The bill does not specify the exact structure or operating procedures of the Support Worker Wage Review Commission beyond its composition and some functions.
- The bill does not specify the exact nature or scope of the training, education, and professional development programs to be developed by the Minister, only their general purpose.
This regulation is referenced to define the minimum pay for support workers, by including the temporary pandemic pay provided under this regulation.
Source: Section 2(1)
This bill, if passed, would create this new Act.
Source: Preamble and throughout
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