Ontario government revives gas-and-dash Bill

The Bill amends the Occupational Health and Safety Act to add a new section 53.2 requiring employers at gas stations to require customers to prepay for gasoline before pumping it from a gasoline pump that has prepayment technology (technology that can prevent a person from taking gasoline from the pump before paying for it). The new section applies to gas stations in the Greater Toronto Area (the geographic area composed of the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel and York). It also applies in any municipality that passes a resolution requesting the application of the section and that is listed in a regulation made under the Act. The new section also requires the employer at the station to affix a notice to any pumps with prepayment technology informing customers of the prepayment requirements under the section, as well as to provide worker safety training to those of its workers involved in selling gasoline at the station. The owner of the gas station must ensure that any new or replacement gasoline pumps that are installed at the station have prepayment technology. The application of the new section in a municipality is phased: there is a six-month window before any requirements begin to apply, and for the first year after that, the requirement that employers ensure that customers prepay for gasoline before pumping it applies only to gasoline sold between the hours of 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.