Ontario Passes the Getting Ontario Moving Act

The Getting Ontario Moving Act will Upload Responsibility for New Subway Lines, Improve Road Safety, Protect Frontline Workers and Schoolchildren

News.Ontario.ca
June 5, 2019

Today, Ontario's government kept its promise to put people first by passing the Getting Ontario Moving Act that will cut red tape for our province's job creators, help keep our roads safe and enable the upload of new subway builds to the province to ensure subway lines get built faster.

"Our government is moving forward with its plan to upload new Toronto subway infrastructure to improve transit and get shovels in the ground faster," said Jeff Yurek, Minister of Transportation. "This legislation marks the next step in the largest expansion of Ontario's transit network in our province's history that will bring real relief to transit users."

The legislation will also cut red tape, find efficiencies and keep Ontario's roads among the safest in North America.

Changes to increase road safety include:

• Making learning to drive safer and reaffirming to new drivers that it is never safe to drive under the influence by introducing two new offences for any driving instructor that violates a zero blood-alcohol concentration or zero drug presence requirement.
• Improving traffic flow and enhancing road safety on our highways by introducing tougher penalties for driving slowly in the left-hand lane.
• Protecting our children by giving municipalities the tools they need to target drivers who blow by school buses and threaten the safety of children crossing roads to their school or home.
• Strengthening laws that protect frontline, roadside maintenance, construction, tow truck and recovery workers from careless drivers.
• The legislation will also make life easier for tourism operators and recreational off-road vehicle drivers by allowing off-road vehicles to operate on municipal roads unless specifically prohibited.

"With the passing of this legislation today our government is transforming how businesses and people interact with the Ministry of Transportation," said Yurek. "We're helping make our communities safer and ensuring Ontario is open for business and jobs once again."

Quick Facts

• The Getting Ontario Moving Act was introduced in the legislature on May 2, 2019 by Jeff Yurek, Minister of Transportation.
• The province has announced a $28.5 billion expansion to Ontario’s transit network -- the largest investment to build new subways in our history.
• The province and the City of Toronto have agreed on a joint Terms of Reference to guide a discussion on uploading subway infrastructure from the city to the province.