Ontario's new digital workplace legislation, the Digital Platform Workers' Rights Act, 2022 (the "DPWRA"), has been proclaimed to come into force on July 1, 2025. The DPWRA was enacted through Bill 88, the Working for Workers Act, 2022, which came into force on April 11, 2022, but it was not given an in-force date until its proclamation on September 5, 2024. Together with the proclamation, the Government of Ontario filed Ontario Regulation 344/24, General under the DPWRA on the same date.
As discussed in our March 2022 Charity & NFP Law Update, the DPWRA amends the Employment Standards Act, 2000 to establish certain rights for individuals who provide "digital platform work", which the DPWRA defines as "subject to the regulations, the provision of for payment ride share, delivery, courier or other prescribed services by workers who are offered work assignments by an operator through the use of a digital platform". The DPWRA provides digital platform workers with basic rights to information, minimum wage, a recurring pay period and pay day, notice of removal from an operator's digital platform, the right to resolve workplace disputes and freedom from reprisal.
Amendments to O Reg. 347/18 under Ontario's Police Record Checks Reform Act, 2015
Amendments to Ontario Regulation 347/18, Exemptions under the Police Record Checks Reform Act, 2015 (the "PRCRA") which proposed on May 8, 2024 have now been approved, and will become effective January 1, 2025. The amendments are intended to ensure that police record checks subject to the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017 (the "CYFSA") and the Intercountry Adoption Act, 1998 (the "IAA") are performed in the same manner in order to have consistent police record check requirements between both Acts.
Once effective, required police record checks under both Acts will be exempted from the requirements contained in the PRCRA, and will instead be subject to the safeguards set out in O Reg 347/18. Section 1 of O Reg 347/18 will be amended to cover the types of roles/positions in the child and youth services sector that are currently excepted from the PRCRA, such as the subsection 2(2) paragraph 8 exception for searches requested by a children's aid society for the purpose of performing its functions under the CYFSA.
Searches governed by the CYFSA or IAA that are related to other roles or positions similar to those currently listed at section 1 of O Reg 347/18 will also be added to O Reg 347/18 for consistency.
The intent is that searches for all types of checks required under these Acts will be subject to all the procedural safeguards under O. Reg. 347/18. Examples of such safeguards include restrictions on when non-criminal information can be disclosed, as well as processes to respond to requests from individuals to review their results, correct inaccuracies, or request a reconsideration of the disclosed information.
The amendments are also intended to streamline and clarify when and from whom police record checks are required, the practices and procedures to be followed with required checks, and the information police services must consider disclosing based on the type of check. As well, they will stipulate that individuals (rather than children's aid societies) will request and receive their check directly from a police service.
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