More than a ban on speed cameras: Here’s what you need to know about Ontario’s Bill 56

Ontario’s Bill 56, called the Building a More Competitive Economy Act, was tabled on Monday and it does more than just ban automated speed cameras.

It’s an omnibus bill that amends more than a dozen laws — from environmental protections to health-care licensing and labour mobility — all with the aim of making Ontario “the most competitive place in the G7 to invest, create jobs and do business,” according to the provincial government.

In total, Bill 56 presents 11 initiatives. Some of the key amendments include:

Julie Simmons is an associate professor in the political sciences department at the University of Guelph. She said streamlining permit approvals should increase the speed at which projects get approved.

When it comes to some large projects like housing starts, manufacturing development, major natural resource extraction projects and highway development, Simmons says it’s typical for multiple ministries to need to sign off on their own regulatory requirements. 

This bill changes that to a “one-window approach,” where multiple hands in the pot turn into one centralized channel.

But Simmons says some of the processes this bill would remove were put in place “to protect things like the environment, to protect things like Indigenous understandings of land use.”

She said where individual permit approvals may come with consultation and environmental review requirements, the “smaller issues that might have arisen on a permit-by-permit basis won’t necessarily get that same airing and deliberation.”

Simmons said, if implemented as described, the bill should accomplish the government’s economic-growth intentions.

“If the streamlining goes ahead as the government has written it, then it is certainly going to eliminate some of the activities that … may have the unintended consequence of slowing down economic development," she said.

A major amendment in Bill 56 is to the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991. It now allows for some specific health care professions that have received certification in other provinces to practice in Ontario, without any additional requirements. 

Specifically mentioned in the bill are audiology, dental technology, dentistry and denturism professions.

Similarly, amendments to the Ontario Labour Mobility Act, 2009, would allow for workers in other provinces that are “deemed to be certified” in a trade that is regulated in Ontario to work in this province, too.

The bill does not list which regulated trades are included under the new labour mobility rules.