Adding Professions
The PGA was designed to allow for adding new professions to the Act – referred to as “designating” a new profession. The PGA allows the superintendent to conduct a designation assessment, which is a detailed study of a profession’s suitability for becoming subject to the PGA. A designation assessment can be undertaken in response to an application from an organization that regulates or otherwise represents the profession, or at the superintendent’s discretion.
For information on applying for a designation assessment, see:
For information on designation assessments, see:
The superintendent’s designation assessment report to the minister responsible for the PGA must include a recommendation on whether or not the profession should be brought under the PGA.
Options for regulating a profession under the Act
If the superintendent recommends designating the profession, the superintendent must also recommend whether the regulatory body responsible for the profession should be:
- A new regulatory body established under the PGA
- An existing professional regulator continued as a regulatory body under the PGA; or
- An existing regulatory body under the PGA.
The PGA also allows the superintendent to make recommendations on whether to amalgamate existing regulatory bodies. The superintendent can consider amalgamations of regulatory bodies that are governed under the PGA either on request, or on the Superintendent’s own initiative.
Decision-making process
The minister responsible for the PGA must consider the superintendent’s recommendations in the designation assessment report. If the minister determines it would be in the public interest to designate the profession, the minister will recommend to the Lieutenant Governor in Council (Cabinet) that the profession be brought under the PGA.
The Lieutenant Governor in Council makes the decision whether a profession is brought under the PGA, and has the authority to make regulations to put the decision into legal effect.