Introduction

In December 2011, Ontario’s Office of the Fairness Commissioner assessed the way the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario registers people who apply for a licence to practise in Ontario, to ensure that the registration practices are fair and continue to improve.  

This summary of the assessment includes commendable practices that are under way and recommendations for improvement.

The Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario is subject to Ontario's fair access law, which amended the law about health professions, the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 (RHPA). The law spells out the college’s obligation to have transparent, objective, impartial and fair registration methods and requirements.

The Office of the Fairness Commissioner

To encourage accountability under the fair access law, the Office of the Fairness Commissioner (OFC) works with professions’ regulatory bodies to improve the way they register people who apply for professional licences. As a result of the OFC’s work, qualified people, no matter where they were originally trained, will have faster, fairer access to their licence to practise here.

In its work with regulators so far, the OFC has found that they have succeeded in streamlining their registration processes, but they need to do more. For example, regulators need to be more transparent and hold their assessment agencies more accountable for fairness.

To encourage, and hold regulators accountable for, continuous improvement, the OFC assesses their licensing practices in a two-year cycle. This cycle includes recommending improvements where needed and monitoring the bodies’ action plans that address the OFC’s concerns. This approach benefits applicants, the professions and the province.

You can read more about the OFC’s strategy for continuous improvement and its guide for assessments elsewhere on this site.

For more information about this particular assessment, contact the OFC.

Note: The words license, register and certify all refer to authorizing a person to practise a profession.

Commendable Practices

The Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (RCDSO) is demonstrating many commendable practices, in the following areas. (These areas correspond to the sections of the assessment guide, and are derived from the fair access legislation.)

Information for Applicants

• On its website, the RCDSO has information sheets that describe its registration requirements for both domestic and international applicants. The sheets also include the following:
  • information about the RCDSO's qualifications assessment agencies, such as the National Dental Examining Board of Canada (NDEB)
  • fees for registration
  • a question-and-answer section that addresses some of the more common registration issues that are of interest to applicants
• On the website, the Registration/Licensing drop-down menu has an Overview section that describes the basic requirements for all classes of registration certificates (licences).
• The Registration/Licensing drop-down menu also includes a section labelled "Internationally Educated/Trained." This section:
  • contains the dentistry career map developed for and approved by the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration
  • explains in detail the RCDSO and its government-appointed authority
  • describes the RCDSO's registration requirements, the documentation that applicants must submit, and information on bridging programs, examinations and appeals
  • describes costs, timelines, and labour market information
• Through the RCDSO's website, both the RCDSO and the NDEB provide access to many resources — for example, a self-assessment tool, a list of competencies (the knowledge and skills needed to practise the profession), an exam blueprint, sample exam questions, and suggested reading.

Training

• The RCDSO provides all registration committee council members and registration staff with orientation and with various training/reference materials, including the RCDSO's legislative framework, bylaws, protocols and processes, code of conduct, and conflict of interest policy.

Transparency

• The RCDSO communicates with applicants by phone and/or email whenever possible. The RCDSO follows up with written correspondence so that communication is well-documented.
• The RCDSO notifies applicants about missing or improper documentation and about registration decisions.

Fairness

• The RCDSO fees are set on a cost-recovery basis.
• Membership fees include insurance for malpractice. This reduces the insurance cost for individual members.
• The RCDSO shows how registration requirements relate to competencies to explain how the requirements emerged.

Recommendations

The OFC recommends improvements in the following areas. (These areas correspond to the sections of the assessment guide, and are derived from the fair access legislation. Recommendations marked "Required" correspond to the practices regulators must demonstrate in order to meet the specific duties in the legislation. Recommendations marked "Good" correspond to the practices the OFC encourages a regulatory body to adopt in order to meet the general duty to provide registration practices that are transparent, objective, impartial and fair.)

Information for Applicants	Status
Provide registration information in French. [Good]*	December 2011
Provide more specific information about timelines for processing applications, and about documentation that applicants must submit. [Good]*	December 2011
Identify the steps that can be completed outside of Ontario. [Good]*	December 2011

* The RCDSO implemented all recommendations marked with an asterisk before the OFC completed its assessment. The OFC commends the RCDSO for such prompt action.

Blank = Implementation is in progress.
= Recommendation is implemented.
Acceptable alternative = Regulator implements acceptable alternative to this recommendation.