Summary#

Bill 8, the Access to Consumer Credit Reports and Elevator Availability Act, 2018, amends Ontario’s Consumer Reporting Act and Technical Standards and Safety Act, 2000; it does not create a separate law or agency. Its stated goal is to change rules for consumer credit information and allow rules about elevator availability, but those rules are not guaranteed outcomes.

• Consumers gain a right to request their consumer report or their current consumer score and report. Agencies must provide specified information, explain dispute rights, and make trained staff available to explain disclosures.
• Prescribed consumer reporting agencies must place a security freeze when a consumer makes a valid request. While it is in effect, they must not disclose the consumer’s credit or personal information, subject to prescribed exceptions.
• The Registrar gains powers to require records and information from reporting agencies, investigate their practices, and order changes to information or practices in specified circumstances.
• Assessors appointed by the Corporation may impose administrative penalties of up to $10,000 for prescribed violations. Penalties are paid to the Corporation and may be imposed alongside other measures, subject to limits in the Act.
• Regulations may set elevator availability and repair standards, outage-reporting rules, and requirements for public databases. The bill itself does not set those standards or require a database unless regulations do so.

The Act received Royal Assent. Some provisions took effect then; many of the substantive consumer-credit and elevator provisions require a later proclamation. The supplied material gives no proclamation dates.

What it means for you#

• Consumers: You may request your report or score and report, using an available method such as online, phone, mail, or in person. Agencies must meet prescribed deadlines—or, if none is prescribed, use the timing set out in the Act. You must provide identification and other required information.
• Consumers: You may request a security freeze, ask to suspend it for a period you specify, or ask to end it. The freeze can limit access to your information, but the Act allows prescribed exceptions. Fees may be allowed by regulation.
• Consumer reporting agencies: They must follow the disclosure, score-generation, freeze, and information-publication rules that apply to them. A consumer’s request for information or use of another right under the Act must not be used to generate that consumer’s score.
• People and businesses affected by elevator rules: The bill lets regulations assign responsibility for meeting availability standards and reporting outages. It does not itself identify who will have those duties.
• People facing an administrative penalty under the Technical Standards and Safety Act: They may appeal within 15 days of receiving the order. An assessor does not have to hold a hearing before making an order, subject to regulations. The penalty can apply even if the person took reasonable steps to prevent the violation or honestly misunderstood the facts.

Money#

No publicly available information on the bill’s implementation costs is included in the supplied material.

• Regulations may allow fees for some consumer disclosures and for placing, suspending, or ending a security freeze; the bill does not set those fees.
• Administrative penalties can be up to $10,000 and are payable to the Corporation. Regulations may set the amounts and permitted uses of penalty funds.
• The Act also sets maximum fines for offences: up to $50,000 or one year in jail, or both, for an individual; up to $1 million for a corporation. The supplied material does not estimate how often penalties or fines would be imposed.

What is unclear#

• The bill leaves many details to regulations, including which agencies and violations are covered, deadlines, fees, security-freeze exceptions, elevator standards, and outage-reporting requirements.
• It does not set elevator repair times or a minimum availability level. Those would depend on later regulations.
• The supplied material does not give proclamation dates for the provisions that require them, so it does not establish which substantive provisions are currently in force.
• The parent Acts were not supplied, so the exact previous rules and the full change from current law could not be checked against their text.

Case for#

• A possible argument for the consumer-credit changes is that people can see more about how their information and scores are used, and challenge information they believe is wrong.
• A freeze gives consumers a way to stop most disclosure of their credit and personal information, subject to exceptions set by regulation.
• The Registrar’s new information-gathering and order powers could help address inaccurate information or practices that break the law.
• Elevator standards, outage reports, and public databases could make availability problems more visible and create clearer repair expectations if regulations establish them.

Case against#

• Much of the practical effect depends on future regulations. The bill itself does not say what elevator availability standard will apply, or which outages must be reported.
• A security freeze blocks disclosure of the consumer’s credit and personal information, subject to exceptions. The bill does not spell out all exceptions or the practical steps and timing for suspending a freeze.
• An assessor may impose a penalty without first holding a hearing, and the penalty can apply despite reasonable preventive steps or an honest factual mistake. An appeal is available, but must be started within 15 days.
• The bill authorizes new regulatory and administrative work but gives no implementation-cost estimate.