Summary#

Bill 107, the Getting Ontario Moving Act (Transportation Statute Law Amendment), 2019, is an enacted law that amends six Ontario statutes, including the Highway Traffic Act and Metrolinx Act, 2006. Its stated goal is to address transportation-related matters; that goal is not a guaranteed result. The supplied material says some provisions took effect on Royal Assent and others require a later proclamation, but does not give proclamation dates.

• Rapid transit: The Lieutenant Governor in Council may designate a project as Metrolinx’s sole responsibility or as subject to the Minister’s direction. In the first case, Toronto and its agencies generally must stop work on that project and on a substantially similar project nearby, unless the Minister authorizes it. The government may transfer related assets, liabilities, rights and obligations to Metrolinx, with or without compensation.
• Driving and road safety: Driving instructors providing prescribed paid instruction on a highway must have zero blood alcohol concentration and no drugs in their body, except for legally authorized medical drugs if a police officer is satisfied they are authorized. Police may demand breath or oral-fluid samples if they reasonably suspect alcohol or drugs and have stopped the vehicle under the Act. A court may consider harm to highway workers, as well as pedestrians and cyclists, when sentencing for careless driving.
• Traffic rules and penalties: Fines for specified offences involving unnecessary slow driving, slow vehicles not keeping right, and overtaking or passing are set at $150 to $1,000. The Act also allows regulations and municipal by-laws to prohibit off-road vehicles on roads.
• Shortline railways: Licensees must provide operational information every three years and notify the registrar when corporate officers or services change. The registrar may change licence conditions after notice and an opportunity for written submissions. The Act removes requirements to advertise a planned railway-line discontinuance, seek buyers and offer the line to Ontario at salvage value if no private sale occurs.
• Other changes: Earth grading in specified areas near provincial highways is brought within permit requirements. Only one type of Ontario photo card may be issued; existing valid enhanced and combined cards remain valid until expiry or cancellation but cannot be renewed, replaced or revised. The law also changes when a vehicle lessor’s liability limit applies.

What it means for you#

• Toronto and its transit agencies: If a project is designated as Metrolinx’s sole responsibility, they must stop the covered work unless the Minister authorizes it. For a project under the Minister’s direction, they must follow written directives and get approval for decisions named in regulations. The law also limits legal claims over these government actions, including by applying the limit to some claims that arose earlier.
• Drivers and driving instructors: Instructors covered by the rules must meet the zero-alcohol and drug requirements while teaching. Drivers convicted of the listed traffic offences face the specified fine range. A court may treat injury to a highway worker as an aggravating factor in a careless-driving sentence; it is not required to do so.
• Municipalities: The Act allows municipal by-laws to prohibit off-road vehicles on roads under municipal jurisdiction. It also gives regulations a role in how municipalities may administer the existing system of administrative penalties, including imposing penalties, handling appeals, collecting payments and reporting information.
• Shortline railways: Licensees must provide information and report specified changes. They may make written submissions before the registrar changes licence conditions. The bill removes the former statutory process for selling a line before discontinuing it.
• Photo-card holders and vehicle lessors: Holders of valid enhanced or combined cards may keep using them until they expire or are cancelled, but cannot renew, replace or revise them. The change to lessor liability concerns specified vehicles and the relationship between lessor and lessee; it is not a general removal of liability limits.
• General public: The bill does not itself name rapid transit projects, create a new transit service, or set a schedule for completing one.

Money#

No cost estimate is in the supplied material.

• The government may transfer project-related assets and liabilities to Metrolinx, with or without compensation. No amounts are given.
• Municipalities may have administrative duties under the penalty system; no staffing or cost estimate is given.
• Shortline railways must provide information, and some may face changed licence conditions. No compliance-cost estimate is given.
• The bill sets a $150–$1,000 fine range for the specified traffic offences. It does not state how much revenue would result.
• Photo-card fees may differ by circumstance or applicant class, but the bill gives no amounts.

What is unclear#

• The supplied material does not identify which rapid transit projects will be designated, or what decisions will need ministerial approval.
• The bill does not define “substantially similar” or “in close proximity” for projects covered by the Metrolinx restrictions.
• It does not set out detailed rules for grading permits, including which activities or locations require one.
• The bill leaves prescribed driving-instruction classes and other details to regulations. The supplied material does not give those regulations.
• The materials do not provide the parent statutes, so the full effect of the amendments against current law could not be independently verified. They also do not give dates for provisions requiring proclamation.

Case for#

• The bill appears intended to give the provincial government clearer control over some rapid transit projects. A possible argument for this approach is that one lead body could avoid conflicting project decisions.
• Requiring zero alcohol and no drugs for covered driving instructors, with roadside testing powers when there is reasonable suspicion, sets a direct safety rule for paid instruction.
• Giving the registrar power to update shortline railway licence conditions, after notice and submissions, may allow conditions to respond to changing operations.
• Removing the statutory line-sale process may reduce steps required before a shortline railway discontinues a line.

Case against#

• The bill gives the provincial government substantial control over designated transit projects, including power to transfer assets and obligations without compensation. The supplied text does not set out a project-specific review process.
• The broad limits on legal claims over transit decisions may leave affected parties with fewer ways to challenge those actions.
• Removing the requirement to seek private buyers and offer a line to Ontario before discontinuance removes a statutory opportunity to pursue a sale; the bill does not explain what replaces that process.
• New information, licensing and administrative duties may cost railways, municipalities or government money, but the bill provides no estimate.