Summary#

The Plan for Care and Opportunity Act (Budget Measures), 2018 is an Ontario law that both creates a new law and amends 36 others. Its changes cover taxes, schools, pensions, workplace benefits, professional discipline, labour relations and financial regulation. Its stated goal is to implement budget measures; that is a purpose, not a promise of results.

• It creates the Revenue Integrity Act, 2018. Businesses later prescribed by regulation must record and report sales information using electronic cash registers; the Minister of Finance can inspect, order compliance, impose penalties and use certain collection powers.
• It expands benefits under the existing Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund for some pension-plan windups, and requires the Colleges of Early Childhood Educators and Teachers to fund therapy and counselling for eligible children or students alleging sexual abuse or child-pornography offences by a member.
• It adds six worker categories to the presumptive workplace-insurance rules for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and deems Canadian Blood Services a hospital under labour law, replacing strikes and lockouts with arbitration for unresolved disputes.
• It changes school-board admission and payment rules for eligible pupils attending certain Indigenous-operated schools and pupils from specified communities attending board schools. It also creates special concrete-formwork bargaining rules in three labour-board areas.
• It changes financial-insurance regulation, including limits on which insurers can receive or keep Ontario licences, and authorizes up to $16 billion in borrowing. It also changes municipal and university property-tax rules and beer tax credits.

What it means for you#

• Businesses in prescribed sectors: Once regulations apply to their sector, they must use an electronic cash register that meets prescribed requirements and report sales information in the required form and time. Non-compliance can lead to orders, administrative penalties of up to $10,000, or prosecution and fines of $500 to $10,000. The Minister may inspect business premises; a warrant is generally needed to enter a dwelling without consent.
• Children and students alleging abuse: The two professional colleges must run funding programs for therapy and counselling. Eligibility can be decided without a finding of misconduct and without requiring a psychological assessment. Funding is reduced by amounts OHIP or private insurance must pay. A college may seek repayment from a member after a misconduct finding.
• Teachers and early childhood educators: The colleges gain powers to order examinations where they have grounds to believe a member is incapacitated, and to impose interim restrictions where a member’s conduct may expose a student or child to harm. Some urgent orders can be made without advance notice.
• Listed workers with PTSD: Nurses providing direct patient care, provincial bailiffs, probation officers and their direct supervisors, special constables, and certain police forensic-identification and crime-analysis staff are added to the eligible categories. Eligibility still requires a psychiatrist or psychologist’s diagnosis and applies under the bill’s timing rules.
• Pension-plan members: For plan windups on or after May 19, 2017, more deferred pensions qualify for the Guarantee Fund without the former age and service tests. The monthly amount above which benefits are not guaranteed rises from $1,000 to $1,500.
• Indigenous communities and school boards: Boards must admit eligible pupils when the required notices and other conditions are met. Boards must pay prescribed fees in some cases and charge prescribed fees in others; extra services or funding may depend on an agreement.
• Insurers and financial-service businesses: Some insurers incorporated in Ontario may not receive or keep an Ontario licence unless they meet one of the listed criteria. Certain existing insurers that do not meet a criterion within three years are limited to winding up their Ontario business.
• Taxpayers: The Act does not itself raise individual income-tax rates. It creates an exception to the referendum rule for a bill receiving first reading in 2018 that would raise those rates.

Money#

No consolidated cost estimate is in the available material.

• The law authorizes the Crown to borrow up to $16 billion; this is borrowing authority, not an appropriation to spend that amount.
• It deems $366,445,123 to have been charged to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Account as reimbursement for earlier Crown expenditures.
• The Colleges must fund therapy and counselling programs. They may set member contributions by by-law, but no total cost or contribution amount is provided.
• The new sales-recording rules may require businesses to pay for compliant equipment and reporting. No estimate is provided.
• Some school-board payments and Victoria University property-tax increases are required, but the amounts are not stated. Toronto must phase in certain increases over at least four years or six years, depending on property class.

What is unclear#

• The Revenue Integrity Act depends on regulations to define covered businesses, sales information, equipment rules, reporting and penalty amounts. The bill does not say which businesses will be covered or when the Act will start.
• The therapy programs’ maximum funding and funding period depend on regulations. The bill gives no budget estimate.
• The school rules depend on regulations for eligible pupils, schools, fees and additional services. The full practical effect cannot be determined from the bill alone.
• Some schedules take effect only on dates set by proclamation. The supplied material does not say which of those provisions have been proclaimed or their start dates.
• The bill text and explanatory note are supplied, but not the full parent Acts. I could not independently verify every change against the complete current law.

Case for#

• A possible argument for the sales-reporting rules is that they give Ontario tax officials transaction information to help administer and enforce tax laws, while allowing some information to be shared with the Canada Revenue Agency.
• Funding therapy without first requiring an assessment or a finding against the member may let eligible children and students seek support sooner. The law also allows the college to recover costs from a member after a misconduct finding.
• Increasing the Guarantee Fund’s coverage for some pensions may protect more pension-plan members when a plan winds up.
• Presumptive PTSD coverage for the newly listed workers may make it easier for eligible workers with a qualifying diagnosis to receive benefits.

Case against#

• The new sales-reporting and inspection powers could impose equipment and reporting costs on prescribed businesses. The bill leaves key details to later regulations and permits penalties and strong collection tools.
• The therapy programs are mandatory, but their costs, maximum payments and funding periods are left to regulations. Member contributions may help pay, but the bill does not set their amounts.
• Some interim professional restrictions can be imposed without a hearing, and urgent orders can be made without advance notice. That can help address risk to children or students, but it also makes clear procedures and timely follow-up important.
• The law changes school funding and labour bargaining rules, but many practical details depend on regulations, agreements or ministerial decisions. It is unclear how those choices will affect boards, Indigenous education providers, unions and employers.