More Convenient Care Act, 2025

SUMMARY FROM THE OFFICIAL REGISTRY

What you need to know

SCHEDULE 1 CITY OF HAMILTON ACT, 1999 Section 11 of the City of Hamilton Act, 1999 is re-enacted to establish a board of health for the City. Currently the City itself has the powers, rights and duties of a board of health under the Health Protection and Promotion Act . SCHEDULE 2 CONNECTING CARE ACT, 2019 The Schedule amends the Connecting Care Act, 2019 to provide for the application of the French Language Services Act to the Service Organization. SCHEDULE 3 HEALTH CARE STAFFING AGENCY REPORTING ACT, 2025 The Schedule enacts the Health Care Staffing Agency Reporting Act, 2025 . The major elements of the Act are described below. Section 2 requires health care facility staffing agencies to submit reports to the Minister containing aggregate administrative, billing or pay rate information for health care facilities to which the agency assigns prescribed persons. Section 3 requires health care facility staffing agencies to comply with specified record maintenance requirements. Section 4 authorizes the Minister of Health to publish certain information contained in the reports submitted under section 2. Sections 5 and 6 describe elements of the Crown’s liability and state that no person is entitled to compensation as a result of the enactment of the Act or other specified actions. Section 7 provides that the Act and the regulations prevail over any agreement to the contrary. Section 8 provides that contraventions of the Act or the regulations are an offence and sets out the penalty for those offences. Section 9 sets out regulation-making authorities for the Lieutenant Governor in Council. SCHEDULE 4 HEALTH PROTECTION AND PROMOTION ACT The Health Protection and Promotion Act is amended to require medical officers of health to notify the Chief Medical Officer of Health and to receive the Chief Medical Officer of Health’s written approval before issuing a class order. SCHEDULE 5 MANDATORY BLOOD TESTING ACT, 2006 The Mandatory Blood Testing Act, 2006 is amended to allow nurse practitioners to perform many of the functions in the Act that must currently be performed by physicians. SCHEDULE 6 PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION PROTECTION ACT, 2004 The Schedule amends the Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 and makes a related amendment to the Health Information Protection Act, 2016 . The major elements of the Schedule are set out below. The Act currently provides for an organization to be prescribed as the “prescribed organization” for the purposes of Part V.1 of the Act. The Act is amended to allow the prescribed organization to be prescribed for the purposes of the Act. The prescribed organization is provided with new duties and powers for the purposes of Part V, the new Part V.2 and Part VI, which are described below. Currently, Part V of the Act is set to be amended by the Health Information Protection Act, 2016 , which would have added subsections 51 (5) and (6). Those amendments are repealed and re-enacted with modifications in this Schedule. The new amendments provide that Part V applies to the prescribed organization as if it were a health information custodian in respect of specified types of information. They also remake what would have been subsection 51 (6) as a new subsection 51 (8). New Part V.2 is added to the Act to govern digital health identifier activities. These are defined activities that are all related to digital health identifiers, which are unique identifiers created by the prescribed organization that can be used to confirm the identity of an individual. Part V.2 authorizes the prescribed organization to carry out digital health identifier activities and describes how personal health information may be collected, used and disclosed in relation to these activities. The prescribed organization is required to have in place privacy practices and procedures, describe their activities under the Part to the public, take specified steps to protect digital health identifier records and notify individuals in the event of privacy breaches. The Part also sets out the rules that apply to persons acting on the prescribed organization’s behalf. The Minister is given the power to issue directives to the prescribed organization related to digital health identifiers and digital health identifier activities. New regulation-making powers allow the Lieutenant Governor in Council to make various regulations related to the prescribed organization and digital health identifier activities, including the power to modify or exclude the application of Part III of the Act. Part VI of the Act is amended to add a new provision providing that the Part applies to the prescribed organization as if it were a health information custodian with respect to certain records. Section 61 is amended to give the Commissioner new powers with respect to certain records related to the prescribed organization.