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Part of Search public engagements

Regulated professions engagement

Regulated professionals, regulatory bodies and other interested groups shared input to ensure standards of competence and ethics are maintained without infringing on individual rights and freedoms.

Status

  • Open

  • Results under review

  • Completed

Who is listening

Ministry of Justice and 10 other government ministries.

Overview

We gathered input from regulated professionals, regulatory bodies and other interested groups to support a review of regulated professions that looks at whether professional bodies are acting within their authority, and whether these bodies are limiting the scope of regulation to professional competence and ethics.

We heard from a wide variety of regulated professionals that regulatory bodies in Alberta may be going too far in limiting individual freedom of expression and imposing compulsory training not related to professional competence.

Albertans must be confident in the expertise and ethics of regulated professionals. These professionals must also be free to express their personal opinions and beliefs when not practicing or representing their profession.

Get informed

Regulatory bodies protect the public interest by setting standards of competence and conduct for their members and disciplining those who fail to meet them.

There are 189 regulated professions and designated trades across 12 ministries in Alberta. As part of this review, government is looking at 118 regulated professions and designated trades across 11 government ministries.

Each ministry did an inventory of the regulated professions under their mandate and determined which should be included in the review. Professions were be excluded from the review if:

  • they are not self-regulating
  • regulation for the profession is not yet in force
  • there is no regulatory body or means to handle public complaints or disciplinary action against any member
  • there is little or no regulatory role beyond certification

Stakeholder engagement

We contacted select professional regulatory bodies, regulated professions and other interested groups to get input on how potential changes would impact their role and what would need to be considered in introducing such changes.

Each ministry determined the most appropriate approach for gathering input from the regulated professions under their mandate. Some professionals are regulated directly by a ministry, so there were no external regulatory bodies to contact. In these cases, ministries engaged directly with regulated professionals or other interested organizations, or they did an internal review.

Outcomes

Responses may help inform potential legislative changes to clarify that professional regulatory bodies are limited to regulating members’ professional competence and behaviour.

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