Bill 119 Advances: Proposed Changes to Ontario’s Police Governance and Oversight Framework
Ontario’s Bill 119, the Protecting Ontario’s Streets and Communities Act, 2026, advanced through public hearings and clause-by-clause consideration before the Standing Committee on Justice Policy. The Bill proposes amendments to several statutes. Of particular importance to police associations, Schedule 3 would make significant changes to the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019 (“CSPA”).
Ministerial Directives to Police Service Boards
Bill 119 would permit the Solicitor General to issue directives establishing priorities that a police service board must reflect in its strategic plan. A directive could apply generally or to a particular board. Upon receiving a directive, a board would be required to review its strategic plan and revise it, if necessary, within the period specified by the Minister. The ordinary consultation requirements governing the development and revision of strategic plans would not apply to a revision required by a ministerial directive.
Although these directives would formally operate at the board-governance level, strategic priorities can affect staffing, deployment, service delivery, training and resource allocation. Police associations should therefore assess whether future directives create consequences engaging collective agreements, workload protections, occupational health and safety obligations or the duty to bargain.
Expansion of the Complaints and Discipline Framework
The Bill would authorize the government to extend portions of the CSPA’s misconduct, public-complaints and investigation framework to additional “prescribed persons.”
Theproposed amendmentsaddress, among other matters:
who may investigate complaints concerning prescribed persons;
the authority responsible for receiving notices and taking responsive measures;
the allocation of investigation costs; and
the application of the CSPA’s misconduct provisions, subject to modifications established by regulation.
The practical scope of these amendments cannot be fully assessed until the government identifies the affected persons through regulation. Special constables and other groups working alongside police services may be affected, depending on the regulations that are ultimately enacted.
Changes to Inspector General Powers
Bill 119 would also permit the Inspector General to consolidate complaints concerning the same matter or other prescribed circumstances. Consolidated complaints would then be treated as a single complaint for the purposes of the applicable CSPA provisions.
Additional amendments would permit the Inspector General to disclose information to the Minister where it relates to the Minister’s duties. They would also modify the Inspector General’s authority concerning investigations and directions involving police service board members.
Associations should consider whether consolidation could affect the scope, timing or procedural management of matters involving overlapping policy, governance and member-conduct allegations.
Other Policing-Related Amendments
Schedule 3 would also:
authorize prescribed out-of-province peace officers, including RCMP officers, to exercise specified police powers under Ontario legislation;
impose a two-year restriction on certain employment and service contracts between police service boards and current or former board members;
expand confidentiality requirements concerning closed board meetings; and
establish additional publication and correction processes for prescribed personal information made publicly available by the OPP Commissioner.
Schedule 14 separately proposes amendments to the Special Investigations Unit Act, 2019, including authority to prescribe additional persons as “officials” subject to the SIU framework.
Current Status
The Standing Committee held public hearings on October 5, 2026, at which the Police Association of Ontario appeared, followed by clause-by-clause consideration on October 8.
As of October 13, 2026, the Legislative Assembly’s official record does not show third reading or Royal Assent. Bill 119 is therefore not yet law, and its provisions remain subject to amendment.
Police associations and their counsel should monitor the committee-approved version of the Bill, its progress through third reading and, if enacted, the regulations defining “prescribed persons,” expanded complaint processes and out-of-province policing powers. The regulations will be particularly important in determining the Bill’s practical effect on association members and bargaining-unit work.
