Bill 153 explained in plain English
Building Infrastructure Safely Act, 2024
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
The Building Infrastructure Safely Act, 2024 amends the Ontario Underground Infrastructure Notification System Act, 2012, to modernize rules around underground infrastructure locate requests, define responsibilities, and introduce fee-setting powers for the Corporation.
Bill 153, now known as the Building Infrastructure Safely Act, 2024, makes several changes to the Ontario Underground Infrastructure Notification System Act, 2012. The amendments aim to clarify and update rules regarding the notification system for underground infrastructure, including different types of locate requests, the responsibilities of the Corporation and its members, and the process for handling requests related to transmission infrastructure. The bill also introduces provisions for liability protection for certain individuals involved in carrying out duties under the Act and allows the Corporation to establish and collect fees for its services, subject to ministerial approval. Additionally, it mandates that at least one call centre for the system must be located in Northern Ontario. The bill specifies that certain provisions of the Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010, will not apply to the Corporation in specific circumstances.
- Amends the Ontario Underground Infrastructure Notification System Act, 2012.
- Introduces new definitions for different types of locate requests: 'dedicated locator request', 'emergency request', 'specified request', and 'standard request'.
- Removes old definitions for 'emergency locate request' and 'standard locate request'.
- Updates the definition of 'excavator'.
- Changes the ministry associated with the 'Minister' definition.
- Specifies that certain provisions of the Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010, do not apply to the Corporation when implementing a Minister's order.
- Authorizes the Minister to add objects to the Corporation by order.
- Restricts the Corporation from engaging in commercial activity through related entities.
- Introduces a new section regarding liability protection for certain individuals performing duties under the Act.
- Re-enacts Section 4 to allow the Corporation to establish forms, set and collect fees, costs, or other charges with ministerial approval, and make rules for their payment.
- Creates a new section (5.1) outlining requirements for the Corporation's call system, including operating a call centre in Northern Ontario, and how locate requests should be submitted.
- Prohibits the Corporation from charging excavators a fee for submitting a locate request.
- Requires the Corporation to notify members when it receives an emergency, specified, or standard request that may affect their underground infrastructure.
- Amends Section 6 to update rules for members responding to specified and emergency requests, including time limits.
- Prohibits members from charging a fee for certain locate activities.
- Adds provisions for the Corporation to notify specific parties when it receives a 'dedicated locator request', including rules for members responding to requests affecting transmission infrastructure.
- Prohibits members from charging fees for locate activities related to transmission infrastructure under specific circumstances.
- Removes a previous requirement for a member to compensate an excavator for failure to provide a locate within the specified time.
- Makes various other consequential amendments to the Act.
- The Corporation (responsible for the underground infrastructure notification system).
- Members of the Corporation (owners or operators of underground infrastructure).
- Excavators (individuals or entities digging or excavating).
- Project owners.
- Dedicated locators.
- The Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery.
- Individuals performing duties under the Act (assessors, officers or board members of the Corporation, employees or retained service providers of the Corporation, agents of the Corporation).
- The Corporation must operate a call system that meets regulatory requirements and have at least one call centre in Northern Ontario.
- Locate requests must be submitted according to regulations.
- The Corporation cannot charge excavators a fee for submitting a locate request.
- The Corporation must notify members whose infrastructure may be affected by certain types of locate requests.
- Members must respond to specified and emergency locate requests within prescribed time limits.
- Members cannot charge fees for certain locate activities.
- The Corporation can set and collect fees for its administrative functions, subject to ministerial approval.
- Certain individuals involved in carrying out duties under the Act have protection from personal liability if acting in good faith.
- The Corporation is prohibited from engaging in commercial activity through related entities.
- The Act received Royal Assent on March 6, 2024.
- Most provisions of the Act came into force on the day it received Royal Assent (March 6, 2024).
- Subsection 8 (7), Section 9 (7), and Section 12 of the Act come into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor.
- The Corporation is authorized to set and collect fees, costs, or other charges for its administration of the Act and regulations, subject to processes and criteria approved by the Minister. These collected funds are not public money and can be used by the Corporation for its objects.
- Members are prohibited from charging a fee for certain locate activities.
- The bill text does not specify penalties for non-compliance with its provisions.
- The specific requirements and standards for the Corporation's call system operations are to be set out in regulations made by the Minister.
- The types of 'specified requests' are defined by regulations made by the Minister.
- The bill text does not specify penalties for non-compliance.
- The timing for the coming into force of certain sections is dependent on a proclamation by the Lieutenant Governor.
The bill amends this Act to update definitions, clarify rules for locate requests, establish new notification procedures, permit fee collection by the Corporation with ministerial approval, and provide for liability protection for certain individuals.
Source: Bill 153
Certain provisions of this Act (subsections 17 (2) to (6)) are made not to apply to the Corporation concerning by-laws needed to implement a Minister's order.
Source: Section 2 (7)
Money collected by the Corporation under this Act is declared not to be public money within the meaning of this Act.
Source: Section 4 (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