Article content

Ontario municipalities will be exempt from some provisions of the province’s controversial workplace standards bill.

Bill 148, more commonly known as the Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, has been controversial for many of its inclusions, among them an increase in the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Ontario exempts municipalities from costly workplace bill provisions Back to video

The bill also targets contract, part-time and on-call workers, including volunteer firefighters, contract workers and those on internships, and requires employers to schedule those workers a minimum of 96 hours in advance of a shift and to pay them a minimum of three hours, regardless of whether their shift is cancelled.

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario had asked for exemptions to the scheduling inclusions, arguing the could cost municipalities millions of dollars annually.

Municipal Affairs Minister Bill Mauro and Labour Minister Kevin Flynn offered in a letter to remove the requirement that part-time or voluntary firefighters be paid the same rate as permanent firefighters, and to remove the minimum hours and 96-hour scheduling provisions.