The public interest in this review

The creation of the Ontario College of Trades involved a very significant transfer of rights and responsibilities from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities to a body governed mostly by representatives from the province’s skilled trades. The transfer of activity is reflected in the College’s:

• role in elevating the status of the skilled trades and promoting careers in the trades, and
• its mandate, which includes establishing apprenticeship training programs and standards; regulating the practice of trades and members of the College; carrying out an enforcement role; and managing the trade classification and journeyperson-to-apprentice ratio reviews.

The College has taken on weighty responsibilities. These include areas of regulation that have a huge impact on the trades and College stakeholders and the responsibility of balancing its statutory duty to "serve and protect the public interest" with the interests of trade professionals.

This duty to serve and protect the public interest is a well-established pillar of self-regulation in other professions across Canada and internationally. It was introduced to the world of trades in Ontario with the passing of OCTAA in 2009 and the creation of the College as a self-regulatory, professional body. The former trades’ legislation did not contain an explicit statement of the duty to serve and protect the public interest. Under the present legislation, the College exists to serve and protect the public interest, because of the privilege of self-regulation granted to the trades. The duty comes with an expectation that members will meet standards of professionalism, and that the College will put the public first and establish, for instance, registration requirements, a complaints and discipline process, and a public register.

The concept of “public interest” is not easy to define, and it varies in different contexts. In a regulatory setting it speaks to the importance of transparent, inclusive and rigorous processes with clearly understandable and impartial decision-making frameworks.

As Pal and Maxwell suggest, the public interest also involves, taking a balanced approach to regulatory outcomes in terms of the various interests involved, but also in terms of equilibrium among individual consumer and citizen interests, commercial interests and broad Canadian societal values.^{footnote 2[2]}

Additionally, in the context of institutions with a broad range of stakeholders with widely varying interests, the public interest also speaks to the need to find a reasonable balance between these interests.

The privilege of self-regulation granted to the trades comes with the legislated responsibility to effectively regulate in the public interest. The duty to serve and protect the public interest is shared by other self-regulatory professional bodies in Ontario, such the Ontario College of Teachers, the Professional Engineers of Ontario and the health regulatory colleges. In that context, a report arising from the 1982 Health Professions Legislative Review^{footnote 3[3]} pointed out that:

This does not mean that a public-interest test should trump all other interests at every point and on every issue in discussions as part of College decision-making. But it does mean that the public interest should be a consideration in all aspects of College decision-making. And it also means that the public interest should prevail over private interests when they cannot be reconciled or aligned. This is a responsibility that I feel in conducting this review.

I have learned that the College Board, together with its highly competent staff, have been exploring the meaning and impact of their collective responsibility to bring a public lens to their work and responsibilities. While this will initially add another layer of complexity in an already complicated environment, it will also be an important guidepost in decision-making on policy and program development. It has certainly helped me in thinking about the issues before me, as it has in my previous work in government and in other reviews.