Accessible Employment Standard Deadline Approaching in Ontario
By January 1, 2017, businesses and not-for-profits (“NFP”) in Ontario with one to forty nine employees will be required to comply with four requirements of the Accessible Employment Standard under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. These requirements include: hiring, workplace information, talent and performance management, and communication of accessibility policies. With respect to hiring, employers must notify the public and employees that they will accommodate the needs of people with disabilities in their hiring process. This information can be posted on the employer’s website or included in the job posting. Workplace information must be provided in a format that is accessible to employees if they ask the employer. If the employer has an existing talent and performance management process, the needs of employees with disabilities must be considered when holding formal or informal performance reviews, and when promoting or moving the employee to a new job. This includes: making documents accessible, providing feedback and coaching in an accessible manner, and providing accommodations necessary to successfully learn new skills and take on new responsibilities. Accessibility policies must be communicated to all new staff, and if changes are made to the accessibility policies all employees need to be informed. These requirements, as well as two additional requirements (accommodation plans and return to work process) were required of businesses and NFPs with fifty or more employees as of January 1, 2016.
Bill C-22 to Establish the National Security and Intelligence Committee Passes Second Reading
On October 4, 2016, Bill C-22, An Act to establish the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians and to make consequential amendments to certain Acts (“Bill C-22”) passed its Second Reading in Parliament and was referred to Committee. As previously reported in our June 2016 Charity & NFP Law Update’s Anti-Terrorism & Money Laundering Update, if passed, Bill C-22 would establish the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (the “Committee”) and determine its composition and mandate. It would also establish the Committee’s Secretariat, which would assist the Committee in fulfilling its mandate and make consequential amendments to certain other acts. Charities and NFPs that have concerns about the far-reaching effects of Bill C-51 and the dearth of oversight for broad state investigative powers may wish to also follow the progress of Bill C-22.
Ontario Bill 41 Would Allow LHINs to Intervene in the Governance of NFPs
Bill 41, Patients First Act, 2016 (“Bill 41”) was referred to the Standing Committee on the Legislative Assembly following its second reading in Ontario’s legislative assembly on October 27, 2016. On October 6, 2016, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care issued a News Release explaining the purpose of Bill 41, which it states is to “increase access to care with better coordination and continuity, and bring a greater focus on culturally and linguistically appropriate services.” The effect of Bill 41 would be to integrate the Community Care Access Centres (“CCAC”) into the Local Health Integration Networks (“LHIN”). This would expand the LHINs’ roles in “improving and integrating planning and delivery of front-line health care services, directing more funding to patient care within the existing system.” The overall goal is to improve the patient experience when dealing with local health professionals. A matter of note for the NFP sector is that the definition of “health service provider” (“HSP”) would be expanded to include NFP’s operating in seven new categories of health services.
A concern that has arisen is the potential for increased for-profit delivery of community support services. A more serious concern is proposed ability of the LHINs through an amendment to the Local Health System Integration Act, 2006 to appoint a “supervisor” over an HSP if the LHIN provides funding to the HSP and it considers it to be in the public’s interest to do so. Unless the appointment provides otherwise, the supervisor would have “the exclusive right to exercise all of the powers of the governing body of the provider and its directors, officers, members or shareholders as the case may be.” Bill 41 also provides that “[i]f, under the order of the [LHIN], the governing body continues to have the right to act with regard to any matters, any such act of the body is valid only if approved in writing by the health service provider supervisor.” Bill 41, if enacted as it currently stands, would allow LHINs to take over governance related to an NFP and assign it to a supervisor of their choice. This is an extraordinary intrusion of the provincial government into the governance of NFPs and should be of serious concern to the NFP sector in Ontario. As such, NFPs operating in the healthcare sector in Ontario will need to pay close attention to Bill 41 as it makes its way through the Legislative Assembly and make their views heard in this regard. The Ontario Nonprofit Network is taking a leading role in mobilising the sector on this issue.