In September 2018, Council approved a motion to have an external regulatory review conducted to identify any gaps between PEO’s current practices and the process, procedures and policies exhibited by the best regulators. This voluntary initiative was undertaken as part of Council’s commitment to ensure that PEO is effectively fulfilling its mandate as set out in the Professional Engineers Act.
The independent review was led by Harry Cayton, an international advisor to the United Kingdom–based Professional Standards Authority (PSA), an organization recognized for their expertise in developing international standards for regulatory effectiveness and applying them to professional regulatory bodies around the world. The review assessed PEO’s performance against its statutory mandate and legislative requirements, internal policies and the standards of good regulation across its core regulatory functions:
- Licensing and registration;
- Complaints, discipline, compliance and enforcement; and
- Professional standards.
The review did not assess the governance of PEO.
In addition to Mr. Cayton, who served as chief executive of PSA from 2007-2018, the review team comprised Deanna Williams, a former registrar and CEO of the Ontario College of Pharmacists who was also appointed by the provincial government as a supervisor to the College of Denturists of Ontario, as well as Kate Webb, a regulatory policy specialist with over 10 years' experience of oversight regulation.
The final report, which was received on April 30, 2019, provides 15 recommendations on how to improve PEO’s regulatory performance.
At its June 21, 2019 meeting, Council directed the Registrar to develop a high-level action plan to implement the recommendations from the external regulatory performance review.
The Registrar subsequently presented a three-year action plan to Council at its meeting on September 20, 2019, which serves as a component of an overall strategy that also includes implementing the structural changes to PEO’s operational organization required to produce the capacity and agility needed to achieve the objectives; and integrating the work of the governance advisor to assist Council in enhancing its governance capabilities.
Council approved the plan and further updates on the progress of the related work will be provided as it becomes available.
View the final report.
View the action plan.
Additional resources
The standards of good regulation that formed the basis of the review are included in the list of resources below.
- Proposed Standards of Good Regulation for Professional Engineers Ontario
- Overview document
- Briefing note from September 2018 Council meeting (agenda item 2.7, pg. 49)
- Article in Jan/Feb 2019 Engineering Dimensions