Enhancing Fairness in Canadian Professional Regulation: Insights from the 2011 Congress

1. London, England International Congress on Professional and Occupational Regulation Fairness in Canadian Public Policy and its Effect on Registration Practices Wendy Martin, Inspiration Point Consulting 7-8 July 2011 Promoting Regulatory Excellence

2. Overview • Context • Agreement on Internal Trade • Review Boards • Fair Registration Acts • Foreign Qualifications Standards • Conclusion

3. Fairness & Regulation in Canada Context

4. What is Fairness? Procedural Relational Fairness Substantive

5. Canadians, eh • Culture of fairness to all Canadian citizens regardless of where born http://ironic1.com/

6. Regulation by Province/Territory

7. Canadian Regulatory Agencies • Created through legislation • Mandate: Protect the Public • Self-regulatory structure: • Board/council • Committee, incl. Registration cmte

8. Entry-to-Practice Responsibilities • Set standards for registration • Assess Canadian and internationally educated applicants • Create policies, procedures, and tools for carrying out these tasks All in the name of public safety

9. Government Oversight Growing • Traditionally, oversight via legislation and regulations • Now also Mobility Agreements, Review Boards, Fairness Acts

10. Agreement on Internal Trade Mobility within canada

11. New National Law • Agreement on Internal Trade Chapter 7 – Labour Mobility, 1995 & 2009

12. AIT (2009) stipulates that regulators: Must register an interprovincial applicant without reassessing

13. AIT allows regulators to require: • Reasonable application fees, insurance, bond, criminal background check, evidence of good character • Evidence of good standing • Demonstration of knowledge of provincial jurisprudence

14. AIT Exceptions • Must meet a legitimate objective (e.g. environmental protection)

15. Impact on Regulators • Put in motion harmonization work • Increased communication and understanding between provinces • Additional workload

16. Impact on Regulators, cont. • Decreased work in registration • Cannot require additional training, etc • Collaboration with other provinces

17. Lowest common denominator problem • IEPs have chosen to go to province with least stringent requirements to be registered • They then move to whatever province/territory they want

18. Impact on Registration Practices • Registration criteria are largely harmonized • Exceptions are clear and published • Increase in national assessment processes

19. Review boards

20. Review Boards • Ontario (2005), BC (2009), Quebec (2010) • Receive complaints from individuals • Different approaches: from formal hearing to more flexible reviews

21. Impact on Regulators • Added workload • Financial burden • Some good feedback

22. Impact on Registration Practices • Perception of increased fairness • Some changes made to improve registration practices but focus on individuals

23. Fair Registration acts

24. Fair Registration Acts • Ontario (2006), Nova Scotia (2008), Manitoba (2009), Quebec (2009) • Focused on systemic change, not individuals • Created Commissioners to oversee implementation

25. Principles-Based Mandates

26. Regulators must provide: • Clear information • Timely decisions • Internal review or appeal • Trained assessors • Applicant access to records

27. Different Approaches

28. Ontario Excerpt from OFC website homepage

29. Ontario Reporting Requirements • Annual reports on registration practices • Triennial external audits • Entry-to-practice reviews • OFC-led reviews

30. Impact on Ontario Regulators • Guidelines for reviewing registration practices • Significant additional workload • Large financial costs to regulators

31. Regulators’ Reactions 2007 2011

32. Impact on Registration Practices Documented improvements  Some delay in implementing improvements (due to OFC-related workload)

33. Manitoba

34. Manitoba reporting requirements • Registration Review as requested • Must include applicant data - collected via a process developed by OFC

35. Impacts on Manitoba Regulators • Regular, useful meetings • Minor frustrations • Funding available

36. Impact on Registration Practices • Some improvements implemented or underway

37. Nova Scotia’s Review Officer • In process of being established • Plan to focus on education and capacity building • Will require biannual reports

38. Quebec’s Complaints Commissioner • In process of being established • Act is not detailed, gives a lot of latitude to commissioner • Plan to implement a flexible, creative process to be “agent of change”

39. Quebec – A 3-fold Mandate • Verify/auditregistrationsystems • Monitorthecooperationbetween the professional system and the educational system • Examine individual complaints

40. Foreign Qualification Recognition (FQR) FQR Standards

41. FQR Frameworks • Foreign Qualification Recognition Plan for Alberta (2008) • Framework for a Manitoba Strategy on Qualifications Recognition (2008) • Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications (2009)

42. Pan-Canadian Framework for FQR

43. Impact on Regulators • Funding available • Indirect push to harmonization and simplification of processes • Assists in clarifying expectations

44. Impact on Registration • Improvements made • Pan-Canadian Framework is a push to harmonization • Some professions have created own frameworks

45. Fairness & New Oversight Mechanisms for Registration Practices conclusion

46. Summing Up • Lots of new oversight mechanisms • Registration criteria and processes becoming harmonized across Canada • Costs and benefits for regulators • Good for professionals

47. Speaker Contact Information Wendy Martin Inspiration Point Consulting wmartin@inspirationpoint.ca Canada Tel: 250-753-8671 www.inspirationpoint.caqualifications recognition for mobility and regulation