That is all going to change for many in the industry as Ontario, Quebec, B.C., Alberta and Manitoba are all in the process of bringing in new security legislation; going to licence proprietary personnel, and to “portable” licensing.

Portable licensing means any person who wants to get a guard or PI licence can apply for one. He doesn’t require the “sponsorship” of an employer, but must meet all of the other licensing requirements that happen to be in place in that province at that time, in terms of age, training, and background. If he meets the requirements, he will be licensed and can then apply for work — either with a licensed security businesses and/or with a non-security company employer — with licence “in hand.”  When he leaves his employer, he won’t surrender the licence but remains licensed.

This arrangement is beneficial for the individual licensees themselves. It is also beneficial to contract security companies who occasion-ally need to take on new employees on short notice during a large strike. It currently takes weeks to get a new-hire licensed.  Once mandatory training is in place, it will take many weeks more.  Right now, a company that needs new hires, and fast, has only two options: (1) poach employees from your competitors or (2) sub-contract the work to your competitors.

Neither is a sustainable practice. The idea of portable licensing is viewed with hostility by a lot of people in the security industry and there are typically three main ob-jections: Disloyal employees will wander in and out of my employ; Folks will get licensed without the benefit of having been pre-screened and this will become an administrative burden for provincial regulators who will now have to keep track of tens of thousands of individual licensees.

Portable licensing may or may not be a good idea. I predict, however, that portable licensing will do more good than harm.

In response to the concerns raised I offer the following observations:

Disloyal employees wander around from employer to employer now. Good employers earn the loyalty of their employees by treating them with respect and they have employees sign non-compete agreements.  
Security regulations exist to protect the public from the worst employers in the industry, not from the best employers. Direct licensing of individual practitioners is done in most other trades and professions, and those industries haven’t been thrown into chaos.

Companies who are committed to hiring good people, giving them good training and support in doing their jobs will find that in-creased regulation formalizes what they are already doing. Companies who have no such commitment to their employees will be forced to improve their practices or get out of the business. And this will be a good thing.

Brian Robertson is the principal instructor for Smartguard, a nationally-focused private security training and consulting practice based in Ontario.