Province requiring schools, universities to ascertain clear insurance policies to assist pupil psychological well being, in addition to stop racism and hate on campuses
A brand new yr means new legal guidelines and rules in Ontario, starting from caps on child-care charges to more durable penalties for immigration fraud.
Listed below are among the guidelines and modifications coming into impact as of Jan. 1:
CHILD CARE
The federal government is capping child-care charges at $22 per day for households with youngsters in centres which are enrolled within the nationwide $10-a-day program.
The charges have already come down about 50 per cent to a mean of $23 a day. Subsequent yr, they may fall to a mean of $19, and capped at $22 – a 59 per cent discount in comparison with 2020 charges.
These charges might be lower additional to a mean of $10 a day by March 2026, a date pushed again from an earlier pledge of September 2025.
Officers have stated the brand new funding system, first introduced in August, will guarantee no little one care operators within the $10-a-day program will expertise a loss. Beginning within the new yr, operators will get a primary pool of funding primarily based on a number of elements corresponding to what number of areas they function, what number of youngsters they serve in every age group and the area during which they’re positioned.
ON THE ROADS
Ontario is amending a regulation underneath the Freeway Site visitors Act to lift the overall threshold to report a collision that entails property harm to police from $2,000 to $5,000. The province says the transfer goals to scale back the “administrative burden” on drivers, business automobile operators and police providers.
FINANCIAL BENEFITS
Amendments to the province’s tax regulation will lengthen eligibility of the Ontario Baby Profit for six months for households who’ve misplaced a baby, matching the federal authorities’s Canada Baby Profit eligibility extension.
HEALTH CARE
Ontario is amending rules to enact the voluntary mergers of those 9 native public well being businesses into 4 new ones:
– Brant County Well being Unit and Haldimand-Norfolk Well being Unit
– Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Well being Unit and Peterborough County-Metropolis Well being Unit
– Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Well being Unit, Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Well being Unit and the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Well being Unit
– Porcupine Well being Unit and Timiskaming Well being Unit
The province says these mergers will “address long-standing issues” in its public well being sector, corresponding to capability limitations and staffing challenges.
Additionally as of Jan. 1, all long-term care properties are required to have sprinklers. The province says it’s extending the compliance deadline to July 1, 2026 for some properties to permit for extra infrastructure work.
Earlier this yr, not less than two long-term care properties stated they might be closing partly as a result of they could not meet the sprinkler requirement deadline.
IMMIGRATION
Modifications to the Ontario Immigration Act will “crack down” on fraudulent immigration representatives that exploit newcomers, the province says. The modifications embody new requirements for these representatives that would embody offering proof of registration or licence and having a written contract with candidates.
The modifications additionally impose more durable penalties on those that violate these requirements, together with larger fines and multi-year or lifetime bans for these convicted of great offences.
MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS AND HOUSING
New modifications to the province’s planning legal guidelines take away land use planning tasks from Durham and Waterloo areas, which the province says will give major land use planning duty to native municipalities inside these areas. It says these modifications are a part of its effort to streamline planning approvals and construct properties faster.
Ontario has additionally made a brand new regulation underneath its constructing code regulation to extend harmonization with the Nationwide Development Code, eliminating not less than 1,730 technical variations between the provincial and nationwide necessities. The brand new code comes into impact Jan .1, with a three-month grace interval till March 31, 2025 for some designs already underway.
EDUCATION
The province would require each publicly assisted faculty and college in Ontario to ascertain clear insurance policies to assist pupil psychological well being, in addition to handle and stop racism and hate on campus.
Earlier this yr, the province introduced it will make investments $23 million to boost psychological well being helps in post-secondary colleges.
ON THE JOB
The province is requiring the development sector to offer menstrual merchandise for on-site crews of 20 or extra staff and for development initiatives anticipated to final three months or extra. The province says the modifications are a part of an effort to assist girls within the expert trades.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Dec. 31, 2024.
Rianna Lim, The Canadian Press
