“Regulatory and Registration Oversight and the Impact on Internationally Trained Professionals:

An Ontario Perspective”

Nuzhat Jafri , Executive Director Office of the Fairness Commissioner

TorontoMarch 2, 2012

Office of the fairness commissioner 2

Agenda

• Fair access law

• Context

• Continuous Improvement and Assessments

• Conclusion

Office of the fairness commissioner 3

Fair access law

• Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act, 2006

• 40 regulatory bodies

• Transparent, objective, impartial and fair licensing

• Hon. Jean Augustine, Commissioner

• Everyone deserves fair treatment when applying to practise a profession, regardless of where he or she was educated.

Office of the fairness commissioner 4

Ontario Context

• Ontario population: 13.3 million

• Membership in regulated professions

– Largest: College of Teachers 230,000

– Smallest: College of Dental Technologists 500

• Proportion of internationally educated members ranges from zero to 39 %.

• In 2008-10, most applicants came from South Asia, U.S., South East Asia, East Asia

Office of the fairness commissioner 5

Progress

• Regulatory bodies’ changes:

– Reduced requirements for Canadian work experience

– Speeded up procedures

– Posted more information online

– Ensured that qualifications assessment agencies do their work fairly

• Office of the Fairness Commissioner identifies problems that demand vigilance and action

Office of the fairness commissioner 6

Continuous Improvement

• Assessments of regulators’ licensing practices

• Required practices, e.g.,

– Information for applicants

– Clear, reliable assessment of qualifications

– Appeal processes

• Additional good practices, e.g.,

– Registration policies are well documented (transparent)

– Decisions are free from bias (impartial)

– Canadian experience requirements are justifiable (fair)

Office of the fairness commissioner 7

Continuous Improvement: Activity

• Two-year cycle

• Activity to February 29, 2012

– 30 assessment meetings held

– 28 assessments completed and summaries published

– Action plans received from 12 regulatory bodies

Office of the fairness commissioner 8

Continuous Improvement: Top Issues

• Recommendations

• Commendable practices

• Top recommendations to regulatory bodies:

– Provide better information for applicants

– Use clear criteria to decide whether applicants are qualified

• Assessment summaries on fairnesscommissioner.ca

Office of the fairness commissioner 9

Conclusion

• Commissioner pinpoints where regulators must improve.

• Regulatory bodies are implementing our recommendations.

• The Office of the Fairness Commissioner gets results.

• In Ontario, qualified people will have faster, fairer access to their professions.

Office of the fairness commissioner 10

www.fairnesscommissioner.ca

• Newsletter

•

Office of the fairness commissioner 11

Contact

Office of the Fairness Commissioner595 Bay Street, Suite 1201Toronto, Ontario M7A 2B4 Canada

416-325-9380ofc@ontario.cawww.fairnesscommissioner.ca