What changed
- A new Highway Traffic Act section 48.5 would bring a 90 day licence suspension and a seven day vehicle impound at the roadside, on an officer's reasonable and probable grounds under section 320.13 of the Criminal Code.
- A new section 41.0.3 would suspend a licence indefinitely on conviction under subsection 320.13(3), dangerous operation causing death.
- Neither section is in force. e-Laws marks both as coming into force on a day to be named by order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council.
What the amendments would do
Two new sections, both introduced by 2026, c. 7, Schedule 5. Section 48.5 would require an officer who believes on reasonable and probable grounds that a person is driving, or has driven, a motor vehicle on a highway in contravention of section 320.13 of the Criminal Code to ask that the person hand over their driver's licence, and to detain the vehicle.
The licence would then be suspended for 90 days from the day the request is made, whether or not the person is able to hand it over or fails to. The vehicle would be impounded for seven days, at the cost of and risk to its owner.
Section 41.0.3 would suspend a licence indefinitely on conviction under subsection 320.13(3) of the Criminal Code, subject to early reinstatement under section 57 of the Highway Traffic Act.
When do they take effect?
No date has been set. e-Laws carries each of the two sections under an editorial note reading that the amendment is made on a day to be named by order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council, which is the ordinary marker for a provision passed but not proclaimed.
The text sits in the statute book and has no effect until that order is made. Nothing in the published text names a target.
That is worth stating plainly, because the gap between a bill passing and a section being proclaimed can run for years, and some sections are never proclaimed at all.
Which offence is the trigger?
Section 320.13 of the Criminal Code, dangerous operation. Subsection (1) is operating a conveyance in a manner that, having regard to all of the circumstances, is dangerous to the public. Subsection (2) is the same conduct where it causes bodily harm, and subsection (3) is the same conduct where it causes death.
The roadside section reaches section 320.13 as a whole, so on its face it would not be confined to the subsections involving injury. The indefinite suspension on conviction is tied to subsection (3) alone.
All three are Criminal Code offences rather than Highway Traffic Act ones, which is why the licence consequence has to be written into the provincial statute separately.
Why passed and in force are different things
Reporting on a legislative change describes what a statute will do, and the date it starts doing it is easy to lose between the announcement and the proclamation. Somebody who reads that Ontario has brought in a 90 day roadside suspension has read something accurate about the statute book and inaccurate about this week.
Anyone facing a charge now is facing the law as it stands now. Anyone planning around the new sections should confirm that the order has been made, rather than that the bill has passed.
The detail sits on the criminal defence practice, which is kept current as the rules move.
