Summary#

Bill 46, the Protect Ontario by Cutting Red Tape Act, 2025, amends 22 existing Ontario Acts; it does not create one new program. Its stated goal is to save people and businesses time and money and support better services and a stronger economy. It received Royal Assent in 2025, but some changes start only on a date set by government order; the supplied material does not give those dates.

• Forest removal: Regulations may allow Crown-forest resources to be removed for non-forestry activities without a permit. People using either a permit or such a regulation must pay Crown charges; once charges are paid, the removed resources become their property. Required approvals under at least one listed or prescribed law must be met.
• Consumer rewards: The Act replaces the existing rewards-points rules with requirements set partly by future regulations. Those rules may apply to older agreements and may change or end rights already acquired under them.
• Funeral services: The Act adds an authorization requirement for prescribed services or supplies relating to human remains, plus new inspection, compliance-order and administrative-penalty powers. Penalties can be up to $25,000.
• Waste and information: The Minister may order the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority to collect specified records and information from people in the waste and resource-recovery sectors. Regulations may also require certain agreement-holders to offer services to municipalities or other entities.
• Public access and liquor: Municipalities must post audited financial information online; a municipality without a website must make it available at no cost. A provincial-park superintendent may designate public areas in operating parks where open liquor is allowed, subject to notice and regulations.
• Other changes: The Ontario Court of Justice may order blood, DNA or other tests in certain proceedings to decide parentage. Other amendments cover such matters as long-term-care public reports, sex-offender registry disclosure, snowmobile definitions, court hearings and benefit designations.

What it means for you#

• Consumers with rewards points: If points expire, are cancelled or suspended contrary to the Act or regulations, you may ask the supplier in writing to restore them. The supplier must acknowledge a valid request and either restore the points or investigate and explain why it considers you not entitled. Regulations will set important requirements and deadlines.
• People involved in a parentage case: A party may ask the Ontario Court of Justice for leave to obtain a blood, DNA or other test when the court needs to decide parentage in a proceeding within its jurisdiction. This does not create a general testing process.
• Municipal taxpayers and residents: Municipal financial statements and related information must be available online within 60 days of the treasurer receiving them. For municipalities without a website, the information must be available to the public at no cost.
• People using provincial parks: Open liquor is not permitted throughout every park. It may be allowed only in a designated public area in an operating park, with notice given as the law or regulations require.
• Funeral-sector operators and licensees: Operators must get authorization before providing prescribed supplies or services for human remains. Inspectors may enter business premises at reasonable times without a warrant, but this does not authorize entry into a dwelling without the occupier’s consent. Some contraventions may lead to penalties, compliance orders or licence action.
• Waste-sector businesses and municipalities: Specified people may have to provide requested records to the Authority, which must collect and give them to the Minister under an order. Regulations may require people who have certain agreements to offer collection, management, or promotion and education services to municipalities or other prescribed entities.
• General public: The bill does not create a general tax, benefit or front-line service change.

Money#

No publicly available information.

• The supplied material gives no overall cost or savings estimate.
• The Act creates possible staffing and compliance work, including administration of funeral-sector inspections and penalties; it gives no staffing numbers or cost estimates.
• Forest-removal charges are payable, but the Minister determines their prices and amounts. No figures are provided.

What is unclear#

• The supplied material summarizes some existing rules but does not include the full parent Acts. Current-law comparisons are limited to those summaries.
• Regulations will determine key details for rewards points, forest removal without a permit, funeral-service authorizations, and waste-service offers. The material does not give those rules.
• Rewards regulations may apply to older agreements and may modify or extinguish existing rights. Which agreements and rights would be affected depends on the regulations.
• The exact limits on LCBO and iGaming Ontario powers under the Ministry of Infrastructure Act, 2011 are not set out here.
• Some provisions require a government order to start. The supplied material does not say whether or when those orders were made.

Case for#

• A possible argument for the forest changes is that they allow regulations to set when resources can be removed for other activities, while requiring at least one applicable approval under a listed or prescribed law.
• The new rewards-points rules could give consumers a way to seek restoration of points and let regulations set consistent disclosure and expiry rules.
• The funeral-sector powers could help enforce legal requirements through inspections, compliance orders and penalties.
• Online posting can make municipal financial information available without relying on newspaper publication.

Case against#

• Forest removal under authorizing regulations is exempt from the Crown-forest sustainability requirement and several forest-planning rules. The regulations could also affect forest licence rights; the details depend on future rules.
• The rewards-points regulations could reach older agreements and change or extinguish rights already acquired. The bill does not itself set the full rules consumers and suppliers would face.
• Funeral-sector administrative penalties can be imposed without a hearing beforehand, and the Act makes them apply even where a person took reasonable steps to prevent a contravention. The appeal deadline is 15 days.
• The waste-information rules require confidentiality but allow disclosure for policy evaluation and override Ontario’s freedom-of-information law. The bill does not spell out the practical limits on that disclosure.