Summary#

Bill 68, the Comprehensive Ontario Police Services Act, 2019, was enacted in 2019. It creates the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019 and the Special Investigations Unit Act, 2019, repeals the Police Services Act, and amends other laws. Its stated goal is to set rules for community safety and policing; that goal is not a guaranteed result.

• Police service boards and the Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner must provide “adequate and effective policing,” including crime prevention, law enforcement, maintaining public peace, emergency response and help for crime victims, under standards set by regulation.
• Municipalities must prepare, adopt and implement community safety and well-being plans. First Nations may choose to prepare plans. Municipal plans must identify and prioritize risk factors and set strategies and measurable outcomes.
• The bill continues the existing Independent Police Review Director’s office under a new name, the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency. It also creates an Inspector General of Policing with inspection and complaint powers, including powers to issue directions and, after non-compliance, impose serious measures such as appointing an administrator or disbanding a police service.
• The Special Investigations Unit continues as a unit outside the Ministry of the Attorney General. It may investigate specified deaths, serious injuries, firearm discharges and reported sexual assaults that may have resulted from an official’s criminal conduct.
• The bill gives police-service boards and the OPP responsibility for court security and authorizes security staff to demand identification and information, search people and vehicles, and refuse entry in specified circumstances.
• The Mandatory Blood Testing Act, 2006 is amended: applications go to the Board immediately, hearings generally must begin and end within five business days, and the maximum offence penalty rises to $10,000 per day, up to six months in jail, or both.

The bill received Royal Assent, but its main new Acts and some other provisions require a start date set by proclamation. The supplied material gives no proclamation dates.

What it means for you#

• Municipalities: You must prepare a plan with public and community input, adopt it, take actions it requires, and monitor, evaluate and report on its effects. If the Minister finds repeated, intentional non-compliance with certain duties, the Minister may appoint a planner; the municipality must pay that planner’s remuneration and expenses.
• First Nations: A band council may request a First Nation police service board or choose to make a community safety and well-being plan. The bill does not guarantee a board or funding: the Minister considers the request, including the possibility of funding or other help.
• Police services and officers: Boards must set policies and strategic plans, employ service members and monitor the chief’s performance. The bill also sets rules for complaints, investigations and discipline. Some discipline can include unpaid suspension or lost pay; demotion or termination requires an adjudication hearing.
• People making complaints about police conduct: Any person may complain to the Complaints Director about covered officers and other specified personnel. The Director must review complaints, but may refuse some, including certain late or out-of-scope complaints. A complainant may seek review when a chief of police finds no misconduct in an investigation.
• People entering courthouses: Authorized security staff may search you without a warrant in the situations set out in the bill. Refusing a search or an order to leave can lead to arrest and a fine of up to $5,000 for a first offence or $10,000 for a later one, or up to 60 days in jail, or both.
• People affected by a blood-testing application: The Board generally must hear the matter within five business days. A judge may authorize police assistance to carry out a court order. The law does not make police assistance automatic.

Money#

No publicly available information on the total cost or an overall cost estimate is in the supplied material.

• Municipalities must fund their municipal boards enough to provide adequate and effective policing and cover board operating expenses. Disputes can go to arbitration.
• The Minister may charge fees for training. The bill also allows charges for some OPP services and for extra policing costs, such as temporary costs caused by an event.
• First Nation board funding may be set by agreement; a board can seek conciliation or arbitration if it believes its funding is insufficient.
• The bill allows staffing for the Inspector General’s office and other bodies, but the supplied material gives no staffing numbers or costs.

What is unclear#

• The start dates for the main new Acts and other proclamation provisions are not provided.
• Many operating details depend on regulations, including policing standards, board composition, funding rules, fees and complaint procedures.
• The supplied material does not include the full former Police Services Act, so a complete comparison with the rules it replaced cannot be verified.
• The bill does not set out a budget or explain how new offices and duties will be funded.
• A municipality must act on its own plan, but the bill says it must only encourage and assist other entities to take actions the plan assigns them.

Case for#

• The bill requires public plans with risk factors, priorities, strategies and measurable outcomes. This could make local safety planning more specific and open to evaluation.
• An Inspector General with inspection powers and a complaints process could provide a route to address failures to follow the Act.
• The SIU is continued outside the Attorney General’s Ministry, and its rules require public reporting on investigations that do not lead to charges, subject to privacy limits.
• First Nations can request their own police service boards, and the Minister must consider culturally responsive policing when changing those boards’ arrangements.

Case against#

• The bill leaves many important rules to future regulations, so the practical effect depends on details not in the Act itself.
• Required plans, oversight and staffing may add costs for municipalities and the province, but no estimate is supplied.
• The Inspector General can impose strong measures after a direction is not followed, including appointing an administrator or disbanding a service. A possible concern is whether the available process and safeguards will be enough in practice.
• A community safety plan does not ensure that outside agencies will carry out its strategies; municipalities are only required to encourage and assist them.
• Court security powers include warrantless searches and authority to refuse entry, which may affect people attending court.