Bill 219 explained in plain English
No Free Ride for Fossil Fuels 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
Bill 219 allows Ontario municipalities and the City of Toronto to charge fees to natural gas companies for using municipal highways and infrastructure in their operations.
Bill 219 amends two Ontario laws to give municipalities and local boards the power to charge fees to natural gas companies for using municipal land and infrastructure. Specifically, it allows municipalities and the City of Toronto to impose fees or charges on gas producers, distributors, transmitters, and storage companies for services, activities, costs, or use of property related to equipment and infrastructure (such as pipes, cables, and machinery) located on municipal highways that are used in their gas business. The bill also prevents the government from making regulations that would limit or block this municipal fee-setting power.
- Adds a new power to the Municipal Act, 2001 allowing municipalities and local boards to impose fees or charges on gas producers, distributors, transmitters, and storage companies for services, activities, costs, or use of property (Section 391(1.2))
- Specifies that such fees apply to equipment and infrastructure located on municipal highways that are used in the gas company's business, including pipes, cables, poles, conduits, equipment, machinery, and other works (Section 391(1.2))
- Prevents the government from making regulations that would limit or restrict this municipal fee-setting power (Section 400(2))
- Makes equivalent amendments to the City of Toronto Act, 2006 to give Toronto and its local boards the same fee-charging authority (Sections 259(1.2) and 266(2))
- Comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent
- Municipalities in Ontario and their local boards, who gain the explicit authority to charge fees to gas companies
- The City of Toronto and its local boards (extended definition), who gain equivalent fee-charging authority
- Gas producers, gas distributors, gas transmitters, and storage companies (as defined in the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998), who may now be subject to municipal and Toronto fees for using municipal highways and infrastructure
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent (no specific date provided in the bill text)
- The bill does not specify how much municipalities or Toronto can charge or what methodology they should use to calculate fees
- The bill does not define what specific services, activities, or costs would justify fees, leaving this to be determined by individual municipalities
- The bill references terms 'gas producer', 'gas distributor', 'gas transmitter', and 'storage company' as defined in section 3 of the Ontario Energy Board Act, 1998, but does not reproduce those definitions in Bill 219 itself
- It is unclear whether municipalities must consult with gas companies before setting fees or whether any appeals process exists
- The bill does not specify whether fees could apply retroactively or only to future installations
- It is unclear how this interacts with any existing franchise agreements or terms between municipalities and gas companies
New section 391(1.2) added to explicitly authorize municipalities and local boards to charge fees to gas producers, distributors, transmitters, and storage companies for using municipal highways and infrastructure in their gas operations
Source: Sections 1 and 2
New section 259(1.2) added to give the City of Toronto and its local boards the authority to charge fees to gas producers, distributors, transmitters, and storage companies; section 266(2) prevents government regulations from limiting this power
Source: Sections 3 and 4
The bill references section 3 of this Act to define which entities qualify as gas producers, distributors, transmitters, or storage companies that can be charged fees
Source: Sections 391(1.2) and 259(1.2)
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