After five years, the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services in Ontario finally released the last of the 13 regulations to be implemented for the Private Security and Investigative Services Act, formerly known as Bill 159.

On Feb. 25, the Private Security Investigative Services Branch said the mandatory training and testing requirement will come into force April 15.

That means all new security guard licence applicants will have to complete a 40-hour training course and write and pass a test in order to obtain a licence. The security guard course must consist of at least 40 in-class hours, and must include certification in Emergency Level First Aid and two hours of in-class training in Use of Force theory as a minimum requirement for everyone who pursues guard training. The Ministry has yet to issue Use of Force specialized certification requirements for those equipped to work with handcuffs and batons.

The private investigator course must consist of at least 50 in-class hours.

The training can be provided by public universities, community colleges, private career colleges, a licensed security agency, or in-house security department interested in providing training. Those providing training must register with the Ministry and electronically provide the Ministry with a list of all students who have completed their course.

However, the Ministry only issued a memo to licensed agencies and registered businesses on March 5, indicating they had 10 days — until March 15 to complete and submit a Training Entity Identification form.

The Ministry memo indicated that once training providers had identified themselves to the Private Security and Investigative Services Branch office, they would be given a user account and password to log onto the ministry database and upload the names of students who have successfully completed the basic training. At that time, the Ministry will give the training body completion numbers for distribution to each student.

Students must use their training completion number to register for the Ministry test.

Once the training is confirmed, the candidate will have to write the test — a 60-question, 75-minute multiple-choice test that will be administered at Drive Test locations across Ontario — the same storefront locations where residents of Ontario take their driver's licence test. The fee is $60 and the test will only be available in English and French.

There is no limit on the number of times a person can rewrite the test. The province isn’t saying what the pass mark is and won’t tell those who take the test where they made mistakes.

That isn’t the case in British Columbia where those who fail the test are told, in a broad sense, what areas they need to better focus their training.

“In B.C., you know what the pass mark is and what mark you got. You’re also told where your strengths and weaknesses are in a particular domain area of questions,” says Brian Robertson, president of Diligent Security Training & Consulting based in Toronto. “In Ontario, they are saying they are trying to maintain the integrity of the test by not divulging what the questions are to those who take the test.”

Robertson is also the author of the Security Guard Exam Prep Guide, due out at the end of April, published by Emond Montgomery.

Upon completion of the training and testing, the application for a licence will be processed at the Ministry. If successful in testing, training and criminal record background check the licence will be issued.

Currently, those licensed guards or private investigators   whose annual licence renewal date comes up before July 16 will get a year’s grace period and won’t have to pass the test until next spring.

Licensed guards whose annual renewal date comes up after July 15 will have to write the test and pass it to get their licences processed.