When the Office of the Fairness Commissioner (OFC) commenced operations in 2007, it’s officials reviewed a number of models to help structure its compliance mandate. This task was challenging given that the first iteration of Ontario’s fair access legislation was unique in the western world and given that the OFC was responsible for numerous regulators involved in a variety of unique professional spheres.

The OFC ultimately decided to implement what it branded as a Continuous Improvement Strategy. This approach was operationalized through a series of recurring, cyclical activities designed to create incremental systemic changes and to more proactively enforce compliance when this became necessary.  Through this system, the OFC worked with regulators steadily and constructively to improve the fairness of registration practices in the province.

There is little doubt that most regulators have matured over the last 14 years. However, the process has been uneven, and some regulators have made more progress than others. At the same time, there has been a shift in the philosophy of regulation. Many oversight agencies have embraced what have come to be known as modern regulator principles. In addition, most regulators have developed complementary risk-informed compliance frameworks.  This means that, in an environment of constrained resources, regulators must adopt evidence-based approaches that direct resources to those organizations that could benefit most from this attention. This approach is then supplemented with a broader set of education and compliance tools that the regulator can employ in a customized fashion.

Based on significant consultation with subject matter experts, the regulatory community and other stakeholder, the OFC has decided that it will now also adopt a risk-informed compliance framework that ii uniquely aligned with the province’s fair access legislation. Our key objective is to work with regulators to achieve better outcomes for applicants to the professions, health colleges and compulsory trades. 

The materials contained in this section of our web site contain the policies and operational guidelines that we will use to direct and inform this process.