Canada - AI and Monitoring Provisions (Bill 149)

Overview

The Working for Workers Four Act, 2024 (Bill 149), enacted as S.O. 2024, c. 3 (Royal Assent March 21, 2024), amends multiple Ontario statutes and introduces new job-posting obligations to the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA). The most relevant changes for AI and electronic monitoring are found in Schedule 2, which adds Part III.1 ("Job Postings") to the ESA and requires employers who advertise certain publicly advertised job postings to disclose the use of artificial intelligence when AI is used to screen, assess or select applicants and to provide expected compensation or a compensation range in postings. The Lieutenant Governor in Council made regulations to define terms and set exemptions, including an exemption for employers with fewer than 25 employees; some regulatory provisions have staged commencement dates and the regulation appears on e-Laws as O. Reg. 476/24. See the enacted statute and the job-postings regulation for authoritative text and commencement details. Working for Workers Four Act, 2024 (S.O. 2024, c. 3). (ontario.ca)

Definitions

Bill 149 places key definitional authority in regulation. The Act's Part III.1 refers to "artificial intelligence" and "publicly advertised job posting" and directs that those have the meanings set out in the regulations. Ontario Regulation 476/24 defines "artificial intelligence" as "a machine-based system that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers from the input it receives in order to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments." The regulation also provides the operational definition of "publicly advertised job posting" and lists exclusions and thresholds; practitioners should consult the regulation text for the precise statutory definitions used in enforcement. O. Reg. 476/24: Rules and Exemptions re Job Postings. (ontario.ca)

Governance and Institutional Framework

The ESA enforcement framework governs the new job-posting Part: compliance, complaints, inspections and adjudication occur through the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development and the ESA administrative processes. The Act itself grants the Lieutenant Governor in Council regulation-making powers to (among other things) define terms and prescribe exemptions and criteria, and the Ministry is responsible for operational guidance and enforcement. For electronic-monitoring and disconnect-from-work obligations, the Ministry maintains guidance pages clarifying employer obligations, thresholds (usually based on number of employees counted on January 1), record-keeping and timelines for providing policies to employees. Organizations should coordinate legal, HR and privacy functions to ensure alignment between posting disclosures and workplace policies enforced under the ESA. Working for Workers Four Act, 2024 and Ministry guidance on ESA policies. (ontario.ca)

Key Focus Areas

1) Disclosure in job postings: Employers who use AI in candidate screening, assessment or selection must disclose that use in publicly advertised job postings, subject to regulatory exemptions. 2) Compensation transparency: Employers must include expected compensation or a compensation range in qualifying public postings unless an exemption applies. 3) Canadian-experience prohibition: Employers may not include Canadian-experience requirements in most publicly advertised postings; limited exceptions may be prescribed by regulation. 4) Electronic monitoring policies: Separate from job-posting obligations, the ESA already requires employers with 25 or more employees to maintain written electronic-monitoring and disconnect-from-work policies and keep such policies for three years after they cease to apply. 5) Definition and threshold rules: The regulation sets the technical definition of AI and the employer-size exemption (employers with fewer than 25 employees are exempt from Part III.1). 6) Privacy and algorithmic-risk concerns: Disclosure is a transparency measure but does not replace privacy impact assessments or measures to mitigate algorithmic bias; the Information and Privacy Commissioner raised such concerns during committee review. Stakeholders should therefore treat disclosure as a baseline and adopt risk-management practices where AI is used in hiring. O. Reg. 476/24 and committee submissions. (ontario.ca)

Implementation Framework

Implementation is a hybrid of statute and regulation. The Act sets out the duties in broad terms while O. Reg. 476/24 supplies operational definitions and exemptions and sets commencement details (including notes that certain subsections come into force January 1, 2026). Employers should implement a compliance program that: (a) classifies public job postings against the regulatory definition of "publicly advertised job posting"; (b) determines employer-size applicability (25-employee threshold) using the ESA counting rules (count employees employed in Ontario on January 1); (c) updates posting templates to include compensation information and any required AI-disclosure statements; (d) retains documentation showing how postings comply with the ESA and the regulation; and (e) for employers subject to electronic-monitoring requirements, maintain and distribute written electronic-monitoring and disconnect-from-work policies consistent with Ministry guidance. Relevant authoritative sources are the enacted statute and O. Reg. 476/24. Working for Workers Four Act, 2024. (ontario.ca)

Monitoring and Evaluation

Enforcement is integrated in the ESA complaint and enforcement system: employees or applicants may file complaints with the Ministry if an employer fails to comply. The Ministry may investigate and apply administrative remedies under the ESA. Because the new job-posting rules rely on definitions and exemptions in regulation, the Ministry is positioned to review the operation of exemptions and update guidance as needed. Organizations using AI in hiring should adopt monitoring practices (e.g., audits, bias testing, documentation, data retention policies) to demonstrate compliance and to respond to complaints and inquiries. The Information and Privacy Commissioner and stakeholder submissions flagged the need for transparency beyond simple disclosure; regulators may consider further guidance or enforcement priorities reflecting privacy and fairness concerns. S.O. 2024, c. 3. (ontario.ca)

Penalties, Liability, and Appeals

Bill 149’s job-posting requirements operate under the ESA’s existing enforcement and complaint mechanisms. The ESA provides remedies for wage and employment-standard violations and authorizes the Ministry to issue orders and pursue collections, prosecutions or administrative enforcement depending on the contravention. Complaints and review processes available under the ESA apply where the new Part III.1 duties are implicated. Separate civil and privacy liabilities (e.g., human rights, privacy-law claims, or other statutory regimes) could arise from improper use of AI in hiring or from intrusive electronic monitoring if those uses contravene privacy, human-rights or other applicable laws. Employers should consult counsel where potential third-party liabilities exist. Working for Workers Four Act, 2024. (ontario.ca)

Relationship to Other Instruments

The Act amends the ESA and interacts with pre-existing ESA provisions on electronic monitoring and disconnect-from-work policies (introduced under earlier Working for Workers legislation). It also interfaces with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act amendments contained in Schedule 4 of Bill 149 (indexing changes) and with federal and provincial privacy/statutory regimes (e.g., the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) for federally regulated sectors and Ontario’s privacy laws and the Human Rights Code for discrimination matters). Employers using AI should consider obligations across labour, privacy and human-rights instruments. S.O. 2024, c. 3. (ontario.ca)

International Alignment

Ontario’s approach—requiring disclosure of AI use in hiring and compensation transparency in postings—tracks international trends emphasizing transparency and algorithmic accountability (many jurisdictions are considering notice/notification and pay-transparency rules). The regulation’s technical definition of AI is broadly consistent with definitions used in other jurisdictions’ AI governance instruments, but Ontario’s framework is targeted at labour-market transparency rather than prescriptive model-level AI safety requirements. Because enforcement is embedded in the ESA, an Ontario-specific compliance pathway exists for labour regulators, while privacy and human-rights regulators retain complementary authorities. Employers operating across borders should align local hiring practices with Ontario disclosure and compensation requirements where they recruit or post roles in Ontario. O. Reg. 476/24. (ontario.ca)

Implementation Timeline

Sources for timeline: enacted statute and regulation text; check e-Laws for any proclamation or additional commencement orders. Statute and Regulation. (ontario.ca)

Sources and References