June 2019 Archives

The Bill includes 61 schedules, each relating to amendments to a different existing statute. The following schedules might be of interest to the health care community:

Schedule 31	Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act	Amendments include data integration, provision for the designation of units within ministries that may collect personal information in order to compile information for among other things the planning for the delivery of programs and services provided, provides for rules governing the collection, use and disclosure of this personal information and the Information and Privacy Commissioner is given the authority to conduct reviews of the units’ practices and procedures. The grounds on which personal information can be disclosed under Part III of the Act are also amended.
Schedule 53	Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act, 1997	Section 8 of the Public Sector Labour Relations Transition Act, 1997 is repealed and replaced. The new section 8 provides that the Act applies when two or more health service providers are amalgamated or when all, or substantially all, of the assets of one health service provider are transferred to another health service provider. Rules respecting the application of the Act in those circumstances are also set out. The Lieutenant Governor in Council is given the power to make regulations that provide for transitional matters in connection with the implementation of these amendments, and complementary and consequential amendments are also made.
Schedule 61	Vital Statistics Act	The Schedule amends the Vital Statistics Act. Instead of tabling in the Assembly the annual report of registrations under the Act that subsection 3 (5) requires the Registrar General to prepare, the Registrar General is required to publish it in a manner that the Registrar General considers appropriate. In deciding under subsection 34 (1) to correct an error made in a registration, the Registrar General no longer requires a statutory declaration to supplement evidence of the error. The Schedule adds powers for the Registrar General to make regulations governing the correction of errors in a registration. It also transfers some of the present regulation-making powers of the Lieutenant Governor in Council to the Registrar General.

More Information: Bill 100

Proposed and Approved Regulations

No new and approved regulations of interest.

Ontario Newsroom

Ontario Government Protecting What Matters Most

Promises Made, Promises Kept: Ontario’s Government for the People Marks One-Year Anniversary

Ontario government taking a flexible, fair and reasonable approach to managing public sector compensation

Articles of Interest

Cannabis

How do you sell cannabis vape devices you’re not allowed to show the customer? Turns out it’s hard

Ontario signs new deals to ease cannabis supply crunch

Ontario Health Teams

Updated Timelines for Ontario Health Teams

Health Care

Families of patients with SMA meet with Ontario health minister, hope ‘miracle drug’ will get funded

Unions push back after Ontario moves to cap public-sector wage increases

Ontario government moves to cap pay increases for public service workers

Privacy

P.E.I: 1041 dental patients identified in privacy breach

Exclusive: Privacy commissioner suspends consultation following Equifax data breach, says lawyer

Professionalism

Disgraced former fertility doctor’s actions now subject to disciplinary hearing

Things to do this Weekend

40 things to do in Toronto this weekend

Ontario Health Teams – Update on Timelines

By Michael Gleeson on June 6, 2019

Posted in Governance, Health System, Integrations

The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has announced updated timelines for the process by which it will identify the first cohort of Ontario Health Teams. The Ministry has extended the time period for its review of submitted self-assessments. Rather than issuing invitations to submit full applications in early June, as previously expected, the Ministry now anticipates beginning to issue such invitations in early July. The deadline for submitting full applications is correspondingly extended until September of this year.

The Ministry update describing the revised timelines for Ontario Health Teams can be found at the following website: https://mailchi.mp/ontario/june-06-update?e=ca30a798b1.

DDO Health Law Update

By Pam Seto on June 3, 2019

Posted in Legislative Updates, New Legislation

June 3, 2019: A weekly scan of new legislation and regulations important to the Ontario health sector, as well as articles of interest.

Bills

Bill 116, Foundations for Promoting and Protecting Mental Health and Addictions Services Act, 2019

This Bill introduced by Hon. Christine Elliott, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care was carried on First Reading. The Bill enacts two Schedules:

Schedule 1 – Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence Act, 2019
- Ontario Health shall establish and maintain within Ontario Health, a Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence.
Schedule 2 – Opioid Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act, 2019
- This Schedule enacts the Opioid Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act, 2019 and makes a complementary amendment to the Limitations Act, 2002
- The Act give Ontario a direct and distinct action against manufacturers and wholesalers of opioid products to recover costs of health care benefits caused or contributed by an opioid-related wrong.
- Ontario can recover the cost of health care benefits with respect to particular individual insured persons or on an aggregate basis, with respect to a population of insured persons.
- The Act also changes the rules with respect to the limitation periods. Section 6 of the Act permits an action for damages or for recovery of the cost of of health care benefits, alleged to have been caused or contributed by an opioid-related wrong, to be commenced by Ontario before, or within 15 years after, that section comes into force.

More Information: https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-1/bill-116