Bill 44 explained in plain English
Healthcare Staffing Agencies Act, 2025
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 44th 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 Healthcare Staffing Agencies Act, 2025, aims to reduce reliance on healthcare staffing agencies by requiring spending limits, establishing non-profit status for new agencies, and imposing new oversight and payment regulations.
This bill, called the Healthcare Staffing Agencies Act, 2025, proposes new rules for healthcare staffing agencies in Ontario. It requires hospitals and long-term care homes in larger municipalities to create plans to reduce their spending on these agencies. New agencies established after the bill becomes law must operate as non-profits. Agencies receiving significant public funding will be subject to oversight from several government watchdogs, and their employees may appear on the Sunshine List. The bill also sets limits on how much agencies can pay their staff and prohibits them from hiring away existing hospital and long-term care home employees. There are specific rules about how much agencies can charge for transportation and accommodation, and a fine is proposed for agencies that poach staff.
- Requires hospitals and long-term care homes in municipalities with a population of 8,000 or more to develop and publicly share plans to limit their spending on healthcare staffing agencies.
- Sets specific timelines and percentage-based spending limits for healthcare staffing agencies based on the population of the municipality where the hospital or long-term care home is located.
- Mandates that any new healthcare staffing agency established after the Act comes into force must operate as a not-for-profit organization.
- Subjects healthcare staffing agencies that receive over $400,000 from the Government of Ontario or its transfer payment agencies to oversight by the Auditor General, Patient Ombudsman, Ontario Ombudsman, and Integrity Commissioner.
- Includes employees of overseen healthcare staffing agencies on the Sunshine List.
- Prohibits healthcare staffing agencies from paying their workers assigned to hospitals or long-term care homes more than 10 per cent above the existing rate for that profession in that facility.
- Requires that charges for transportation, accommodation, and per diem for agency staff be made public and paid directly to the worker, subject to potential regulations.
- Prohibits healthcare staffing agencies from hiring employees away from hospitals or long-term care homes.
- Sets a fine of up to $1,000,000 for agencies that poach employees and states that these fines will fund hospitals and long-term care homes.
- Prevents healthcare staffing agencies from assigning workers who are already employed by a hospital or long-term care home, or who have left such employment within the last 12 months, in the same or adjacent Ontario Health Team.
- Hospitals in municipalities with a population of 8,000 or more.
- Long-term care homes in municipalities with a population of 8,000 or more.
- Healthcare staffing agencies.
- Workers employed by healthcare staffing agencies.
- The Government of Ontario.
- Transfer payment agencies of the Government of Ontario.
- The Auditor General of Ontario.
- The Patient Ombudsman.
- The Ontario Ombudsman.
- The Integrity Commissioner.
- Employees of certain healthcare staffing agencies (Sunshine List).
- Hospitals and long-term care homes have an obligation to develop and publicly share plans to limit spending on healthcare staffing agencies.
- New healthcare staffing agencies have an obligation to operate as not-for-profits.
- Healthcare staffing agencies are prohibited from paying their workers more than 10 per cent above the existing rate for the same profession in a hospital or long-term care home.
- Healthcare staffing agencies are prohibited from poaching employees from hospitals or long-term care homes.
- Healthcare staffing agencies are prohibited from assigning workers who are currently employed by or recently left a hospital or long-term care home.
- Agencies are obligated to make charges for transportation, accommodation, and per diem public and ensure they are paid directly to the worker.
- The Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent.
- Plans to limit spending on healthcare staffing agencies must be developed within six months after the section comes into force.
- Plans must be updated every six months thereafter.
- Spending limits take effect at six months, 12 months, and 24 months after the section comes into force, with a complete cessation of agency use required after 24 months in specified municipalities.
- Agencies are prohibited from assigning healthcare workers who left employment within the previous 12 months.
- Hospitals and long-term care homes will have their spending on healthcare staffing agencies limited based on population size and timelines.
- Healthcare staffing agencies receiving over $400,000 in public funding will be subject to financial oversight.
- Fines collected from agencies found guilty of poaching employees will be used to fund hospitals and long-term care homes.
- Healthcare staffing agencies that poach employees are guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000,000.
- The bill does not specify what happens if a hospital or long-term care home fails to develop or adhere to its spending limitation plan.
- The bill does not specify penalties for hospitals or long-term care homes that do not comply with the spending limitation requirements.
- The bill indicates that charges for transportation, accommodation, and per diem are subject to 'any prescribed limits,' but these limits are not detailed in the text provided and may be established by future regulations.
- The exact definition of 'existing rate' for professions within hospitals or long-term care homes for the purpose of the 10% cap is not specified.
- The scope of 'transfer payments agencies' is not fully defined in the provided text.
- The specific details and process for 'oversight' by the Auditor General, Patient Ombudsman, Ontario Ombudsman, and Integrity Commissioner are not fully elaborated in the bill text.
- The bill does not explicitly state what happens if a healthcare staffing agency is established as a for-profit entity after the Act comes into force, beyond the requirement that new agencies must be not-for-profit.
- The bill does not define 'adjacent Ontario Health Team'.
This bill creates a new law titled the Healthcare Staffing Agencies Act, 2025, which sets out rules for healthcare staffing agencies, hospitals, and long-term care homes.
Source: Title, Sections 1-10
New healthcare staffing agencies established after this Act comes into force must operate as not-for-profit corporations according to the definition in this existing law.
Source: Section 3
Employees of healthcare staffing agencies that receive more than $400,000 in public funding will be included on the Sunshine List.
Source: Section 4(5)
The Auditor General will have oversight over healthcare staffing agencies that receive more than $400,000 in public funding.
Source: Section 4(1)
The Ontario Ombudsman will have oversight over healthcare staffing agencies that receive more than $400,000 in public funding.
Source: Section 4(3)
The Integrity Commissioner will have oversight over healthcare staffing agencies that receive more than $400,000 in public funding.
Source: Section 4(4)
The Patient Ombudsman will have oversight over healthcare staffing agencies that receive more than $400,000 in public funding.
Source: Section 4(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