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Proposed Ontario Labour Mobility Act

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The Ontario Labour Mobility Act, 2009 was passed to strengthen support for full labour mobility for Canadian workers. It received Royal Assent on December 15, 2009.

Amendments to the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) endorsed by Canada’s premiers in January 2009 commit all provinces and territories to improving labour mobility for certified workers in professions and trades.

The legislation supports Ontario’s commitment to implement the labour mobility provisions of the AIT in Ontario. It establishes a Labour Mobility Code to govern how Ontario regulators will support full mobility for out-of-province workers who are already certified. Regulators include such organizations as the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Professional Engineers Ontario and the Technical Standards and Safety Authority.

The legislation ensures that a worker certified to practice in one province or territory will be entitled to be certified in that occupation in Ontario without having to complete additional material training, experience, examinations or assessments.

The Act recognizes that Ontario regulators can set standards that are considered necessary to protect the public. At the same time, it encourages regulators to work with their colleagues across Canada to achieve common standards, where possible.

Other key elements of the legislation include:

• Allowing workers to apply for certification in Ontario without having to be a resident of Ontario.

• Allowing the responsible Minister to review a regulator’s practices and take all necessary steps to ensure those practices comply with the Labour Mobility Code that is set out in the proposed Act.

• Enabling the Ontario government to impose fines on regulators who do not remove mobility barriers such as additional material testing and training, and to recover any fines imposed on Ontario by an AIT panel because a regulator did not work with the government to comply with the Code.

• Amending existing Ontario laws to conform with the Labour Mobility Code.

• Enabling the Ontario government to comply with the AIT’s dispute resolution process.

The following provisions take effect immediately upon the Act coming into force:

• The Act overrides provisions in any other Act, regulation or bylaw that conflict with the Labour Mobility Code.

• The Act applies to applications made on or after the day the Act came into force or to any application where a final decision was not by that date.

• To make it easy for workers to get information, the Act requires regulators to publish on their websites all certification requirements for workers already certified in Canada.

Furthermore, regulators need to amend any inconsistent regulations and bylaws within 12 months of the Act coming into force.

CONTACTS

Annette Phillips
Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities
Minister’s Office
416-326-5748
Annette.Phillips@ontario.ca

Tanya Blazina
Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities
Communications Branch
416-325-2746
tanya.blazina@ontario.ca