Introduction of Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act (No. 2), 2023
Government introduced the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act (No. 2), 2023, to the legislative assembly on Thursday, April 6, 2023.
If passed by the legislature, the amendments will affect the following provincial statutes:
Societies Act
The proposed amendments to the Societies Act are updates to a 2021 amendment that added a new regulation to allow post-secondary student societies to receive member lists from post-secondary institutions. It was recently discovered that the updated regulation power did not include student societies at Royal Roads University and Thompson Rivers University. Changes are being made to address this gap.
Human Tissue Gift Act
Amendments to the Human Tissue Gift Act aim to improve patient-centred health care, reduce procedural barriers and support organ donations by allowing nurse practitioners, in addition to medical practitioners, to make a determination of a patient’s death for the purpose of post-mortem organ donation. This is a critical step before tissue, including organs, can be recovered for transplant.
Strata Property Act
A proposed amendment to the Strata Property Act will clarify that strata corporations are no longer permitted to have, enforce or pass age-restriction bylaws, with the exception of 55-plus age-restriction bylaws. These changes first became law on Nov. 24, 2022. However, some strata corporations have continued to enforce prohibited age-restriction bylaws that were passed prior to this date. The amendment will be made retroactive to Nov. 24, 2022, to protect people who are inappropriately facing bylaw enforcement action.
Child, Family and Community Service Act (CFCSA)
Amendments to the CFCSA will expand eligibility and services available to youth and young adults who were in government care to better support them as they transition to adulthood. The amendments will allow the Ministry of Children and Family Development to support all young people from care, up to the age of 27, something it didn’t previously have the legal authority to do, and expand eligibility for new, comprehensive transitions supports. The amendments will also enable young adults from care to maintain stable housing by making emergency pandemic housing supports and the rent supplement program permanent. It will also provide an unconditional monthly income supplement as much as $1,250 until age 20 to cover living expenses.
Vancouver Charter
The proposed amendments respond to specific requests made by the City of Vancouver to address some limitations of its existing fee authority and will bring Vancouver’s authorities in line with those currently available to all other municipalities under the Community Charter. The amendments modernize Vancouver’s authority to establish and regulate fees for the use of municipal property or for any service that it is authorized to provide under the Vancouver Charter through bylaw. The amendments also enhance Vancouver’s ability to recover costs including for work done by the city where a property owner contravened a bylaw requirement to do that work.
Motor Vehicle Act
Amendments will ensure that RoadSafetyBC continues to support the modernization of the Motor Vehicle Act. The amendments would enable RoadSafetyBC to meet the current timeline to achieve full digitization of the 12-hour suspension and 24-hour prohibition forms in fall 2023.
Community Living Authority Act
Amendments to the act will establish Community Living BC’s (CLBC) board composition requirements that are generally consistent with the current board’s composition, which includes people with lived experience, a family member of a person living with disability, and Indigenous representation. The amendments also codify CLBC’s Indigenous advisory committee in statute and will not lead to any changes in practice as the committee has been in place since 2012.
Employment Standards Act
The amendment to the act will ensure that the statutory holiday entitlement for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (NDTR) applies to unionized workers covered by the Employment Standards Act (ESA), regardless of their collective agreement provisions. The amendment will require unionized employers to provide their employees with statutory holiday pay on this day, even if the collective agreement does not include the NDTR as a statutory holiday, but still “meets or exceeds” the ESA’s statutory holiday provisions.