Bill S-207: An Act to amend the Criminal Records Act, to make consequential amendments to other Acts and to repeal a regulation

This bill primarily affects employers across all provinces and industries who use criminal background checks as part of their hiring process. Businesses in sectors like security, childcare, financial services, healthcare, trucking, and any federally regulated industry that screens job applicants will need to update their HR practices, since more candidates will have expired records that cannot be disclosed or asked about. Employers of any size — from solo operators hiring their first employee to large companies with dedicated HR departments — will need to ensure their job application forms do not ask about convictions for which a record expiry has occurred, as is already the case with record suspensions but will now apply to a much larger pool of people. Charities and nonprofits registered under the Income Tax Act are also affected, as the definition of 'ineligible individual' (which can affect charitable status) is updated to reference record expiries instead of record suspensions.