Bill 47 explained in plain English
Fairness for Road Users Act (Contraventions Causing Death or Serious Bodily Harm), 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
Bill 47 amends Ontario's Highway Traffic Act to create new penalties for anyone who commits a traffic offence and causes death or serious bodily harm in a resulting accident.
Bill 47 is a proposed Ontario law that would add new penalties to the Highway Traffic Act. It would apply when someone breaks a traffic rule (an offence under the Act) and that violation causes or contributes to a car accident that kills or seriously injures someone. If convicted under this new provision, the person would face: - A fine of between $2,000 and $50,000, OR - Up to two years in jail, OR - Both a fine and jail time Additionally, the person's driver's licence or driving permit could be suspended for up to five years. The law would come into effect on the day it receives Royal Assent (final approval) from the Ontario legislature.
- Adds a new section (191.0.2) to the Highway Traffic Act creating penalties for traffic contraventions that result in death or serious bodily harm
- Establishes minimum fine of $2,000 and maximum fine of $50,000 for the offence
- Establishes possible jail term of up to two years for the offence
- Allows both a fine and jail time to be imposed together
- Allows driver's licence or permit suspension for up to five years
- Comes into force on the day the bill receives Royal Assent
- Ontario drivers who commit an offence under the Highway Traffic Act
- People who are killed or seriously injured in car accidents caused by or contributed to by a traffic violation
- Families of deceased or seriously injured accident victims
- Courts would be required to impose a fine of not less than $2,000 and not more than $50,000 on conviction
- Courts have discretion to impose imprisonment of up to two years (but are not required to)
- Courts have discretion to suspend driver's licence or permit for up to five years (but are not required to)
- Bill received First Reading on June 4, 2025
- Act comes into force on the day it receives Royal Assent (date not yet determined as bill is still in legislative process)
- Convicted individuals may face fines between $2,000 and $50,000
- Minimum fine of $2,000
- Maximum fine of $50,000
- Imprisonment for a term of not more than two years
- Driver's licence or permit suspension for a period of not more than five years
- Fine and imprisonment can be imposed together
- The bill does not define what counts as 'serious bodily harm' - this would be determined by existing law or case law
- The bill does not specify which specific traffic offences under the Highway Traffic Act would trigger these penalties; it applies to any offence under the Act
- The bill does not clarify what degree of causation ('causes or contributes to causing') is required to trigger the penalty
- The bill does not specify sentencing guidelines for courts to follow when determining where within the penalty ranges to sentence
- It is unclear whether this provision would apply in addition to any other criminal charges (such as criminal negligence or dangerous operation of a motor vehicle) that might already apply in such situations
A new Part X.0.1 is added to the Highway Traffic Act creating penalties for traffic offences that cause death or serious bodily harm in accidents
Source: Section 1 of Bill 47
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