Summary#
Bill 88, the Safe Night Out Act, 2025, would amend Ontario’s Liquor Licence and Control Act, 2019 and Occupational Health and Safety Act. Its stated goal is to prevent sexual violence and harassment in liquor-serving premises and workplaces; that is a goal, not a guaranteed result.
- The Registrar would have to develop an evidence-based, trauma-informed training program for liquor premises. Licence and permit holders, liquor servers, security staff, their supervisors, and other service providers in those roles would have to complete it.
- Licence and permit holders would have to display a sign saying those people completed the training and have a policy on responding to incidents and identifying community supports and services.
- The bill would add “workplace sexual violence” to the Occupational Health and Safety Act definition of workplace violence, and require workplace policies to address sexual violence or sexual harassment.
- Employers would have to complete Chief Prevention Officer-approved training on workplace sexual harassment and ensure everyone in the workplace completes it. They would also have to take all reasonable measures to prevent workplace harassment and promote respect and dignity.
What it means for you#
- Liquor licence and permit holders: You would have to complete the Registrar’s training, ensure specified workers and service providers complete it, display the sign, and have the required policy. Existing holders and specified people would have four months after the Act comes into force to complete training; new workers and service providers would generally need to complete it before starting the relevant duties or services.
- Liquor servers, security staff, supervisors and other service providers in those roles: You would have to complete the training before starting relevant duties or services, subject to the transition period for people already in those roles.
- Employers and people in workplaces: Employers would have to complete approved sexual-harassment training and ensure every person in the workplace—including workers, supervisors and committee members—completes it.
- People who experience sexual violence or harassment: The bill requires venue policies to explain how incidents will be addressed and provide information about community supports. It does not itself provide those services or set up a process for getting them.
- Completing the required venue training would not, by itself, make a person liable in a civil case. The bill does not say that training prevents other forms of liability.
Money#
No cost information is in the available material.
- The Registrar would have to develop a training program, but the bill gives no cost or staffing estimate.
- Employers and liquor licence and permit holders would have duties to complete training, create or maintain policies, and display signs. The material does not estimate their costs.
What is unclear#
- The supplied material does not include the current versions of the two Acts, so the existing requirements—and exactly what would be new—could not be checked.
- The bill does not set the training’s length, delivery method, renewal schedule, or how completion must be recorded. It also does not say how the Registrar’s program would be funded.
- It does not set out how policies would be enforced, or who would check that training, signs and policies are in place.
- The Occupational Health and Safety Act amendment refers to workplace sexual violence “within the meaning of subsection (5),” but the supplied text adds the definition as subsection (6). That mismatch makes the intended cross-reference unclear.
- The bill does not explain how its two training requirements would interact where a person works at a liquor-serving premises and is also covered by the workplace training requirement.
Case for#
- A possible argument for the bill is that workers in liquor-serving premises would receive training on consent, recognizing risk, and safe intervention, including risks after someone leaves the premises.
- Requiring venues to set out how incidents will be addressed could give workers a clearer response plan and point people to local supports.
- Naming sexual violence in workplace rules and requiring approved training could make it harder for employers to overlook it when addressing workplace harassment and violence.
Case against#
- One concern is that the bill creates broad training duties without specifying the training’s length, cost, renewal, or how completion will be checked.
- It is unclear how the new duties would fit with existing workplace and liquor-licensing requirements, since those Acts were not supplied for comparison.
- The bill requires policies and signs but does not set out an inspection or enforcement process for those requirements.
- The mismatch in the workplace-violence cross-reference could create uncertainty about how the amended definition applies.