PEO is looking for various opportunities to make its licensing system simple. Its target is to create a more efficient, transparent, and objective application system fair to an applicant. Besides that, this system is consistent with a legislative scheme focused on public protection and harmonizes with requirements imposed by the Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act, which is the full form of FARPACTA.

Ultimately, the authority is committed to the licensing system ensuring all eligible applicants are licensed fairly and without undue delay so that they can actively work in their chosen profession.

FARPACTA amendments and compliance timelines:

The FARPACTA amendments need affected regulators to review and revise Professional Engineers Ontario’s licensing systems as necessary to adhere to the legislation over 2023. The most significant amendments need that:

• 90% of licence applicants need to get a licensing decision within six months, and an applicant who is already licensed in another province or territory must get a decision within 30 business days. Every licence applicant has to get confirmation of a completed application within 10 days of applying, or information must be offered as to what documents or application materials are missing. PEO must adhere to this amendment by July 2023.
• A regulator licensing process must not have a Canadian work experience requirement unless a significant safety and health risk to the public in not doing so can be demonstrated. PEO has to comply with this amendment by December 2023;
• An emergency plan has to be created to continue licensing operations and processes to expedite renewals and new registrations in case of public emergencies like natural disasters or pandemics; and
• Language proficiency test results that are given with respect to Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada applications must be accepted, besides any test results that are currently accepted. The authority doesn’t currently need any language proficiency tests from its applicants, so it doesn’t see this impacting its current approach.

With the help of PEO staff, Council’s Regulatory Policy and Legislation Committee, the governance committee charged with overseeing policy development, will develop various policy recommendations for the Council’s consideration over the next several months related to the licensing system that will adhere to principles of objectivity, transparency, and impartiality to deliver timely and credible registration decisions.