Ontario has created a new administrative monetary penalty regime under its Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), giving inspectors the power to issue monetary penalties for health and safety violations as part of a broader package of workplace law changes that took effect November 27, 2025.

The new authority is set out in Part IX.1 of OHSA, introduced through the Working for Workers Seven Act, 2025 (Bill 30). The provisions establish an administrative penalty scheme under which inspectors may issue penalty notices for contraventions of, or failures to comply with, OHSA and its regulations, with penalty amounts to be set by regulation.

If a recipient pays the administrative penalty, they cannot be charged with an offence under OHSA for the same contravention, making the administrative notice an alternative to a prosecution in those cases.

Labour and employment lawyer Matthew Badrov, a partner at Littler LLP, says the new tool is likely to be felt most in day‑to‑day inspections rather than only after serious incidents.

“When we would have had a more routine workplace inspection…we might often see orders to comply,” he said, pointing to examples such as machine guarding. “What we’ll see now is where we used to maybe see those orders, we’ll start to see a potential spike in these administrative financial penalties.”

A new “middle bucket” between orders and charges

Under the existing system, inspectors can issue orders and, in more serious cases, recommend or lay charges that proceed through provincial offences court. Those enforcement options remain in place.

“Their powers to issue orders haven’t changed, and the ability to lay charges hasn’t changed,” Badrov said. “Now maybe there’s a middle bucket where they have the ability to make this administrative financial penalty, depending on what’s happened there.”

He also points to an important limitation designed to avoid stacking penalties.

“The legislation is clear, and I think this is a good thing for employers, [that] if there is an administrative financial penalty that is levied, they can’t then lay charges for the same incident or for the same issue,” he said.

Badrov expects the regime could change how often monetary consequences follow what would once have been addressed as routine non‑compliance.

“We might see an uptick in routine inspections or audits and a potential increase in the use of these administrative penalties…on the front end as opposed to the charges, where typically they’ve been more reactive to an incident,” he said.

Appeals and implementation details still to come

The precise route for challenging an administrative penalty has yet to be finalized. Bill 30 provides that a party can seek a review “from a person or entity designated by regulation” for that purpose.

Badrov expects the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) is the most likely forum, given its existing role in handling OHSA reprisal complaints and appeals of inspectors’ orders.

“My best guess here is that we probably see something similar to what we have with the orders now,” …“they’re already well equipped to handle these types of issues.”

The Ministry of Labour has also proposed a stand‑alone regulation setting out the key elements of an administrative monetary penalty regime under the new OHSA provisions, meaning the detailed rules on contraventions and penalty levels will be fleshed out in regulation.

Parallel enforcement changes under WSIA

The OHSA amendments form part of a broader enforcement push in Bill 30, which also amends the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 (WSIA) to introduce administrative penalties and increase potential fines.

Employers are expressly prohibited from making false or misleading statements about a benefit claim to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) and may be subject to an administrative penalty, in addition to any court‑imposed penalty. Employers that fail to maintain accurate wage records or produce them when requested by WSIB may also face administrative penalties.

In cases where employers fail to pay WSIB premiums when due, courts can order restitution, and administrative penalties can be imposed in addition to any other penalty.

A person convicted of two or more counts of the same offence in the same legal proceeding may also now be liable for a fine of up to $750,000 for each conviction, with factors such as prior convictions and a record of non‑compliance explicitly identified as aggravating.

What employers should do now

With inspectors now able to issue administrative penalties alongside orders and charges, Badrov says employers may want to sharpen their focus on everyday compliance.

“We probably want to be…even more proactive now, not necessarily just preventing workplace accidents, but also from potential hazards and issues from the workplace in case we do see an inspection,” he said.

Government materials describe the broader initiative as intended to “protect Ontario workers and their families by creating safer workplaces and fighting worker abuse with stronger penalties for those trying to exploit Ontario workers.”