Reporting applications means to take the data that comes out of applications, filled out by registrants, and sending it off to be reviewed by the Fairness Commissioner or another organization whose purpose is to study the patterns and decrease inequality or discrimination. They study data that is inputted by the applicant, and also data that has to do with Colleges; this could be how long it took the applicant to finish the application, if people from different provinces or countries take longer to get approved for their license, who’s being recommended extra courses, and other relevant information explaining the experience of applicants from different walks of life. For example, there might be an academic barrier that could block a family physician from Alberta from working in Nova Scotia, or even more challenging, a nurse from Russia coming to work in Ontario. The Fairness Commissioner tries to make the process of transitioning from place to place easier for regulated professions.
Some scenarios where applications may take a long time to be approved, compared to others, include:
- not being able to acquire an applicant’s information because it’s from another province or country,
- an applicant starting an application, not continuing, then starting another one later on,
- more obstacles for the applicant to pass in order to become licensed, for example, applicants from other provinces or countries need to provide more information compared to local applicants, giving College admin more material to approve,
- and some applicants having to resubmit pages of the application because of incorrect or missing information.
There have been different laws, acts, and organizations that have been established to lessen the obstacles mentioned above, especially for people going from one regulated province to another. These include the roll of each provinces’ Fairness Commissioner, The Agreement on Internal Trade, and the Labour Mobility Support Agreement.
The Fairness Commissioner
One place application reports are sent to is the Fairness Commissioner. The purpose of a Fairness Commissioner is to enforce equality and fairness towards all people that are qualified to be licensed by regulatory bodies. They try to ensure transparency between the regulatory body and the applicants, making sure applicants can access information they need regarding the registration process and that they are aware of all the steps they need to take to become licensed. Usually regulatory bodies must submit reports to the Fairness Commissioner of their province for review, then the College will receive recommendations if they need to improve the fairness of the methods in any part of their application process.
Below are two websites of Fairness Commissioners in Canada, note: not all provinces have one:
Labor Mobility
One scenario where reporting is important is in the case of labor mobility. British Columbia has a lengthy Labour Mobility Act that you can find here. As a definition, labor mobility refers to people moving from province to province or internationally to Canada and wanting to keep working in their regulated profession without any extra training or testing. To address barriers and help improve them, governments across Canada signed the Agreement on Internal Trade, explained below.
The Agreement on Internal Trade
The Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) has to do with labor mobility and reducing or eliminating any barriers that make it difficult for people to move around Canada. You can read a summary of the agreement by clicking here. Some regulated professions, even though in the same industry, have different requirements in different provinces. AIT is an agreement saying the “governments [of Canada] have agreed to apply the principles of non-discrimination, transparency, openness and accessibility” when it comes to the free movement of people.
Labor Mobility Support Agreement
Another agreement dedicated to reducing barriers is the Labour Mobility Support Agreement (LMSA). The LMSA takes steps towards creating consistent requirements between jurisdictions. Here is an example of the LMSA for occupational therapists signed by various regulatory bodies. It has been signed by all those regulatory bodies in agreement to allowing less restrictions between each other, if an occupational therapist were to relocate to one of those locations. Click here for an example of an LMSA confirmation form from one of our clients’ website.
Leveling the Playing Field
When the Canadian government looks at the reports and see a huge increase in regulated professionals coming from a certain province or country, they try to compare the professions in both places. They compare the standards of education, methods, training, exams, and more, to see where there is a gap between there and Canada. This gives the Canadian regulatory bodies the ability to know right away what kind of extra courses or training they can tell the applicant he or she needs. For example if a nurse was coming from India, the College can immediately tell him or her what extra courses they need to work in Canada without much effort because they’ve already studied the gap between Canada and India.
Regulatory bodies can also take the information and apply it to their application templates, for example, a template can be made for students with different questions if they’re from different places.
Alinity and Applications
One of Alinity’s great features is the ability to create application templates so easily. Our method allows you to create custom questions, save them, and use them for different applications. We created a drag and drop method that makes creating and organizing an application fast. After the application has been made, it’s able to be sent to applicants and then reviewed and evaluated by College admin.
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