EXPLANATORY NOTE
This Explanatory Note was written as a reader’s aid to Bill 73 and does not form part of the law. Bill 73 has been enacted as Chapter 22 of the Statutes of Ontario, 2004.
The Bill amends the Highway Traffic Act as follows:
Section 57.1 is amended to authorize regulations prescribing qualifications for novice drivers’ licences.
New section 57.1.1 authorizes police officers and other enforcement officers to demand identification from passengers in a vehicle driven by a novice driver in order to determine whether the novice driver is contravening a condition or restriction imposed on novice drivers by regulation.
Under current subsection 106 (7), a child passenger who weighs less than 23 kilograms must occupy a position where there is a seat belt. This is repealed, leaving the requirements respecting child seating and restraint systems to be set out in the regulations.
Current clause 106 (8) (c) exempts a passenger in a motor vehicle from the requirement to wear a seat belt properly adjusted and securely fastened if he or she is secured in another manner prescribed by regulations. This is repealed and replaced by subsection 106 (6.1), which exempts a passenger from the seat belt requirement as long as there are regulations that require the passenger to be secured in another manner.
Under section 207, the owner of a vehicle may be charged with and convicted of an offence even though the owner was not driving the vehicle when the offence was committed. Subsections 175 (11) and (12), failing to stop for a school bus with its overhead red signal-lights flashing, are added to the list of provisions for which an owner who was not driving the vehicle when the offence was committed may be charged and convicted under this section. New subsections 175 (19) to (24) allow for distinctions between charges laid against drivers and charges laid against owners for failing to stop for a school bus to be made in the government’s computer systems. New subsections 175 (25) to (28) allow for different methods of service to be prescribed for service on the owner of the vehicle for the offence of failing to stop for a school bus.
Section 7 is amended to provide that if an owner convicted of the offence of failing to stop for a school bus with its overhead red signal-lights flashing fails to pay the fine imposed on the conviction, the owner’s vehicle permit may not be validated or a new permit issued until the fine is paid.
The Bill makes related amendments to the Provincial Offences Act as follows:
Currently, section 12 provides that when a proceeding for an offence under any Act is initiated by an offence notice, any actions or results provided for in that Act to follow on a conviction do not apply, with a few specific exceptions. Among the exceptions are two provisions of the Highway Traffic Act. Section 12 is amended to set out all of the Highway Traffic Act as an exception to the general rule.
Section 69 is amended in order to give effect to the permit denial authorized by the amendments made in this Bill to section 7 of the Highway Traffic Act.