Bill 49 explained in plain English
Charter Rights Transparency Act, 2018
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
Bill 49, the Charter Rights Transparency Act, 2018, requires the Ontario Attorney General to examine government bills and regulations for consistency with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and to report findings, as well as to provide statements on the Charter impacts of government bills.
This bill, called the Charter Rights Transparency Act, 2018, proposes to amend the Ministry of the Attorney General Act. It would require the Attorney General to review government bills and regulations to determine if they are likely to be inconsistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If such an inconsistency is found, the Attorney General must report it to the Legislature. Additionally, for bills introduced by a government minister, the Attorney General must table a statement in the Legislature outlining the bill's potential effects on Charter rights and freedoms, before any debate on the bill begins.
- Requires the Attorney General to examine government regulations and bills introduced by ministers to see if they are likely to conflict with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
- Requires the Attorney General to report to the Legislature if they find that a regulation or bill is likely to conflict with the Charter.
- Requires the Attorney General to table a statement in the Legislature about the potential effects of government bills on Charter rights and freedoms.
- Specifies that the Charter statement must be tabled before debate on a government bill begins at second reading, with some exceptions.
- States that the bill comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The Attorney General of Ontario
- The Legislature of Ontario
- Government ministers introducing bills
- The public (through information in Charter statements)
- The Attorney General has a duty to examine government bills and regulations for Charter consistency.
- The Attorney General has a duty to report inconsistencies to the Legislature.
- The Attorney General has a duty to table a Charter statement for government bills.
- Members of the Legislature and the public have a right to be informed about the potential effects of bills on Charter rights and freedoms through the tabled statements.
- This Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- The requirements for examining bills and regulations apply to those filed or introduced on or after the first day of the session in which the Act receives Royal Assent.
- The requirement to table a Charter statement for a bill applies to bills introduced on or after the first day of the session in which the Act receives Royal Assent.
- Charter statements must generally be tabled before debate on a bill's second reading.
- The bill does not specify what happens if the Attorney General fails to complete an examination or report.
- The exact timing for the Attorney General's report to the Legislature is described as 'the earliest reasonable opportunity,' which is not precisely defined.
- The bill does not define what constitutes 'more likely than not' in relation to a court finding of inconsistency with the Charter.
- The bill does not specify which 'specified government bills' are subject to examination, beyond those introduced by a minister of the Crown, though it does cover all regulations filed.
- The bill does not create a right for individuals to challenge the Attorney General's examination or reporting process.
Adds new sections requiring the Attorney General to examine specified government instruments for consistency with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and to report findings to the Legislature, and to table statements on the Charter impacts of government bills.
Source: Section 1
References the process for filing regulations with the Registrar of Regulations.
Source: Section 5.1 (1) 1.
References provisions related to the examination of bills for consistency with the Charter and the use of notwithstanding clauses.
Source: Section 5.1 (2), (3); Section 5.2 (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