Clearing the Path: Recommendations for Action in Ontario's Professional Licensing System

Are regulatory bodies dragging their feet?

Hon. Jean Augustine

We cannot say there are individual regulatory bodies that are dragging feet. We think that there are systemic things that are built in the way people have been doing business, as it were. And what we are asking for-as the legislation calls on us to do-we are asking that there be transparency, there be openness.

And an individual approaching a regulatory body should have certain expectations, because they know beforehand what is expected of them: what documents they need to have, what appeal processes there are in the body, what the cost would be, what is necessary for that individual to do in order to be successful, as they approach the regulatory body.

How many people have given up trying to get their licences?

Hon. Jean Augustine

If one person gave up, that's one person too many. But we know that a high percentage has given up. [They] have told us about the jobs they do, and a number of them are jobs that we would put in the category of 'underemployed' and at the same time low paying jobs outside of what they were trained for as a professional or in the field in which they worked, before they came to the Province of Ontario.

What should be done to improve the licensing of foreign-trained doctors?

Hon. Jean Augustine

It is important that there is clear understanding by all of us that the system for doctors-for physicians-is complex, time consuming, expensive and frustrating for individuals.

There are too many players in the field. There are too many organisations that input into the final decisions that are made for an individual to become a physician in this province.

So it is important that we bring all the players around the table to see in what ways we could arrive at a clear way of knowing what is required. Who takes responsibility for this, because you go to one organisation, 'Well this is what I do, this is my part of it and I don't have responsibility for this other part.' And 'This is what I do; I don't know what happens over there once my part is completed.'

So what I am calling for is some responsibility on the part of ministry to bring all the players around the table, now that we have the Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act. It is something, I mean you can operate in the silos before, but now that you have legislation that calls for fair, transparent, objective, impartial timeliness, I am saying 'Let's all, now, come around the same table and address the issues.' And it is important that we do this.

So I have put this recommendation out. I am hoping that the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will look at ways by which they can bring this to fruition, bring the groups around the table. At the same time we cannot have it drag on forever. And I am saying by July 1st [2010], that if there is nothing in progress, if there is no work-in-progress towards bringing the groups together, that the Office of the Fairness Commissioner will make some effort through, to do this, as the Office of the Fairness Commissioner and with the compliance measures within the law.