Bill 116 explained in plain English
Health Protection and Promotion Amendment Act (Sodium Content), 2023
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 43rd 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 116 amends Ontario's Health Protection and Promotion Act to prohibit the sale of food exceeding maximum sodium content levels based on World Health Organization benchmarks.
Bill 116 is an Ontario law that changes the Health Protection and Promotion Act. It creates a new rule that says nobody in Ontario can sell or offer to sell food that has too much salt (sodium) in it. The amount of salt that is "too much" will be decided by the Ontario government in regulations. However, these regulations cannot allow more salt than the levels set by the World Health Organization in their 2021 document called "WHO global sodium benchmarks for different food categories." The law comes into effect one year after it receives Royal Assent (which it has already done), so it will take effect on the first anniversary of that date.
- Adds a new section (17.1) to the Health Protection and Promotion Act that prohibits any person from selling or offering for sale food whose sodium content exceeds the maximum amount prescribed by regulations
- Requires that regulations setting maximum sodium content for foods or classes of food cannot exceed the global sodium benchmarks set out in the World Health Organization's 2021 document 'WHO global sodium benchmarks for different food categories'
- Amends section 100(3) of the Health Protection and Promotion Act to include section 17.1 in the list of sections that can be enforced through offences and penalties
- Establishes that the law comes into force on the first anniversary of Royal Assent
- Any person or business that sells or offers food for sale in Ontario
- Manufacturers and sellers of food products
- Food distributors and retailers
- Ontario consumers who purchase food products
- No person shall sell or offer for sale any food whose sodium content exceeds the maximum amount prescribed by regulations (section 17.1)
- The Ontario government (Lieutenant Governor in Council) must set maximum sodium content in regulations based on World Health Organization benchmarks from 2021, and cannot set amounts higher than those benchmarks (section 96(2.1))
- Bill received Royal Assent (date not specified in provided text)
- The Act comes into force on the first anniversary of the day it receives Royal Assent (section 4)
- The bill text does not specify any direct financial or tax impacts
- Violations of section 17.1 (selling food exceeding maximum sodium content) are enforceable through the offences and penalties provisions of the Health Protection and Promotion Act, as section 17.1 is added to section 100(3)
- Specific penalties are not detailed in Bill 116 itself; they would be set out in the existing Health Protection and Promotion Act
- The specific maximum sodium content amounts for different food categories are not set in the bill itself; they will be determined by future regulations
- The bill does not specify what types of foods or food classes will be subject to the sodium limits
- The bill text does not state the specific penalties for violating the sodium content prohibition; these would be found in the existing Health Protection and Promotion Act
- The exact date the law comes into force depends on when Royal Assent was granted, which is not specified in the provided bill text
- The bill does not clarify how compliance will be monitored or enforced, or what agency will be responsible
A new section 17.1 is added that prohibits the sale of food exceeding maximum sodium content set by regulations, which must align with World Health Organization benchmarks
Source: Section 1
A new subsection (2.1) is added that constrains the regulation-making authority to not set maximum sodium amounts greater than World Health Organization global benchmarks from 2021
Source: Section 2
Section 17.1 is added to the list of sections that can result in offences and penalties, making violations of sodium content rules enforceable
Source: Section 3
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 is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
This bill is still moving through the process. When a recorded division is published, representative positions can be listed here.
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