Resource Management and Safety Act, 2025

SUMMARY FROM THE OFFICIAL REGISTRY

What you need to know

SCHEDULE 1 FOREST FIRES PREVENTION ACT The Schedule amends the Forest Fires Prevention Act with respect to various matters including the following: 1. The title of the Act is changed to the Wildland Fire Management Act and the terms forest fire and forest area are replaced by wildland fire and wildland area respectively. 2. Section 4 of the Act is re-enacted to establish certain officers and provide that the Minister may appoint persons or designate classes of persons as such officers. New sections 5 to 5.9 of the Act set out the roles and responsibilities of such officers. 3. New section 11 of the Act provides for the issuance of permits with respect to outdoor fires outside a restricted fire zone during a fire season. 4. New section 14 of the Act provides that certain entities are required to have a wildland fire management plan. 5. The Minister’s powers with respect to wildland fire emergency areas are amended to clarify that the Minister may issue certain orders restricting activities and to allow for permits to be issued with respect to such areas. 6. The Act is amended by establishing certain additional penalties, including remediation orders and administrative penalties. 7. The Lieutenant Governor in Council’s authority to make regulations in section 36 of the Act is updated. 8. Certain consequential amendments are made to other Acts. SCHEDULE 2 GEOLOGIC CARBON STORAGE ACT, 2025 The Schedule enacts the Geologic Carbon Storage Act, 2025 . Part I of the Act sets out definitions and interpretive provisions that apply to the Act, articulates the purpose of the Act and sets out certain prohibitions. In particular, subsection 1 (1) of the Act defines a “carbon storage site” as any number of wells or storage repositories (underground geological areas) or wells and storage repositories, as well as ancillary works, if any, collectively used for research and evaluation activities or carbon storage activities. Section 3 of the Act defines activities that constitute research and evaluation activities and carbon storage activities. Research and evaluation activities include, for example, using wells to explore for storage repositories capable of being used for carbon storage and obtaining information in relation to their potential use or viability for carbon storage. Carbon storage activities include, for example, using wells to inject carbon dioxide into a storage repository for the purposes of the permanent storage of carbon dioxide in the repository. Section 4 of the Act prohibits the performance of research and evaluation activities and carbon storage activities unless certain conditions are met, which include that the activities be performed under the authority of a permit issued under the Act. Part II of the Act addresses issues of ownership and rights to pore space (essentially voids or cavities within storage repositories). Section 7 of the Act provides that rights to pore space underlying the surface of real property form part of the surface rights estate. Section 8 of the Act allows the Lieutenant Governor in Council to, by regulation, cause rights to pore space underlying lands identified in the regulation to be taken and vested in the Crown provided that certain pre-conditions are met. Section 9 of the Act allows the Crown to, in turn, authorize others to exercise those rights through the issuance of permits under the Act. The Lieutenant Governor in Council is further authorized to make regulations providing for compensation to owners of pore space rights which are taken by regulation. Part III of the Act governs the issuance of the various authorizations contemplated by the Act, as well as their possible transfer, suspension and revocation. These authorizations consist of permits that authorize the performance of research and evaluation activities and carbon storage activities as well as licences for the use of land that is owned or controlled by the Crown. Section 13 of the Act allows for the Ontario Land Tribunal to issue unitization orders which allow, in particular, rights to pore space within a unit area to be joined for the purpose of a carbon storage site. Sections 14 and 15 of the Act contemplate both mandatory and discretionary referrals of applications to the Ontario Energy Board and the Ontario Land Tribunal. The Minister is required to comply with the recommendations of the Board or an order of the Tribunal with respect to the application.