News Releases

Focused on fairness legislation amendments, the Manitoba government has finalized registration review reports for 31 self-regulated professions in Manitoba that will help reduce barriers to registration for both mobility and internationally educated applicants, Labour and Immigration Minister Jon Reyes announced today.

“Recognizing that the health, safety and quality of life of Manitobans depend on services provided by a wide range of professionals, the Manitoba government is committed to ensuring internationally educated professionals and professionals from other jurisdictions can complete the licensure process in the most streamlined way possible,” said Reyes. “Manitoba was one of the first jurisdictions in Canada to implement fairness legislation, and we continue to build on that achievement, making measured, strategic changes that allow more qualified applicants to work to their fullest potential faster.”

The Fair Registration Practices in Regulated Professions Act governs Manitoba’s 31 self-regulating professions, which are professions that have a corporation or association that is responsible for the governance of that profession.

The act ensures the registration processes of the designated self-regulating professions are transparent, objective, impartial and fair while maintaining a high standard of professional practice. Under the act, the professions must also comply with domestic trade agreements including the labour mobility obligations of the Canada Free Trade Agreement and the New West Partnership Trade Agreement.

The most recent amendments in May improved the Manitoba government’s compliance powers related to domestic trade agreements to ensure qualified applicants can register in a regulated profession in Manitoba through a quick process grounded in principles of transparency, objectivity, impartiality and fairness, noted the minister.

Recent amendments to the act also enhanced expectations around labour mobility and registration processes by:

• establishing timelines for regulated professions to respond to registration applications from domestic labour mobility applicants; and
• requiring regulated professions to comply with any regulations respecting English or French language proficiency testing requirements;
• providing the minister with the power to make a compliance order respecting practices that contravene language proficiency regulations made under the act; and
• enabling compliance orders respecting mandatory compliance with domestic trade agreements, to supplement a related power under the Labour Mobility Act.