Labour Mobility

In many professions, as it had been for opticians, it has been virtually impossible until recently, for a registered professional from one province to move to and practice in another province without undergoing additional examination scrutiny. 'Labour Mobility' has been problematic in all other regulated professions as well.  The Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) espoused the very practical goal of causing regulated professional bodies to develop enabling mechanisms for so that free movement of professionals across borders could take place.

The first step for the dispensing group was to develop a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA).  The MRA has now been signed by 9 of the 10 provincial authorities.  They are: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.  It is hoped that the other provincial body will be able to be accommodated in the near future.

The contents of the MRA document can be viewed by clicking on the link below.  While the spirit of the document appears straightforward, it took many years of negotiation for the regulatory bodies to arrive at specifics that blended with their provincial Acts and Regulations.  For example, Ontario does not have separate licensing for eyeglasses and contact lenses.  Consequently an optician wishing to practice in Ontario but who has been licensed in another province with a 'spectacles only' qualification does not meet the requirements of the Ontario regulatory body.  A method had to be devised so that Ontario could participate in Labour Mobility but at the same time maintain their own educational pre-requisite.

Thus, the signing of the MRA was only a first step in the process.  Since there are several educational pathways to licensing in Canada, and since all provinces that are signatory to the agreement represent the 'back door' to every other signatory province, it was necessary to achieve a level of comfort amongst all parties that there was an equal standard of education and examination applied in all cases. 

The MRA allows that all persons who were licensed at the time of the signing of the document in the signatory provinces, will be considered to have undergone equivalent training and examination.  All persons who become licensed in the signatory provinces subsequent to the signing of the document must demonstrate their training and examination are equivalent to the standard agreed upon by the signatory provinces. 

Consequently the NACOR (National Association of Canadian Optician Regulators) group of provinces undertook to:

1.  Participate in an assessment of three examination regimes currently in use; The College of Opticians of Ontario, the National Examination Committee and The College of Opticians of British Columbia.  This assessment was performed by an independent fourth party, namely a professor of psychometry.

2.  Agree upon a common standard of competency and

3.  Develop a template protocol to be used as a NACO standard for purposes of assessing training programs

CLICK HERE to view the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA)