Professional Reliance Review

Engagement Summary

The purpose of this engagement was to solicit feedback from interested British Columbians, including Indigenous peoples, qualified professionals (QPs), and those who use QPs in both government and the private sector as to how the current professional reliance model is performing, and to provide suggestions as to possible enhancements or changes required.

This provincial review made recommendations on:

1. Whether professional associations that oversee qualified professionals (QPs) employ best practices to protect the public interest;
2. Whether government oversight of professional associations is adequate; and
3. Conditions governing the involvement of QPs in government’s resource management decisions and the appropriate level of government oversight to assure the public their interests are protected.

There were several ways to participate in the engagement process.

• Citizens (individuals) and users of Qualified Professionals (QPs) could complete an online questionnaire.
• Stakeholders were invited to submit a formal submission.
• QPs were invited to complete a survey through their member associations.

A second phase of engagement asked for feedback on an intentions paper on three policy topics for regulation development under the Professional Governance Act (PGA).
Visit the Program page

Engagement Timeframe(s)

Phase One: December 1, 2017 to January 19, 2018
Phase Two: October 30, 2018 to March 4, 2019

Input Received

Phase One (input to the Professional Reliance Review)

• over 2,200 public online questionnaires
• 1,800 surveys from qualified professionals
• 102 stakeholder submissions
• 300 email submissions

Phase Two (input to the intentions paper)

• over 120 submissions

Input leads to action:

Feedback collected was considered in the review, along with findings from a review of current legislation and best practices in other jurisdictions. After the phase 1 public feedback process closed the feedback was analyzed and the final review report and a summary of recommendations were published online.

The review made recommendations regarding resource decisions made by government, conditions governing the involvement of QPs in those decisions and the appropriate level of government oversight to assure the public their interests are protected.

Government accepted the recommendations on governance of professionals and in the fall 2018, passed new legislation, the Professional Governance Act, which will provide greater consistency and oversight to the governance of professionals in scope.

Phase 2 feedback has been analyzed in the following What We Heard and Summary of Public Input reports. Government will consider input received during both phases of engagement when developing policy and regulations pursuant to the Professional Governance Act.