Last year, the Private Security and Investigative Services Act (PSISA) came into effect in Ontario. The new law requires security industry workers to be licensed, including some that were not licensed before. New licensing provisions will allow security workers to change employers without having to be re-licensed or to work for more than one security firm. Changes also include standards for uniforms, equipment, vehicles, conduct, licence eligibility, agency documentation/record keeping requirements, business registration and insurance.

The intention has always been to make these changes to strengthen the professionalism of the security guard and private investigator industries and increase public safety. While the training standard and curriculum have yet to be rolled out in Ontario, contract guard companies and their employees have been immersed in the licensing component for months. Previously unlicenced security guards and private investigators employed by the in-house sector will have until August 23, 2008 to obtain their licences. Those using contract security services have also been watching with a careful eye to see how the changes, such as portable licensing, will impact them.

To see how the industry is coping with all the change, in mid-May Canadian Security gathered its editorial advisory board together along with some experts in the area of training and regulation to take stock of the changes taking shape.

The participants:

Ted Carroll, Policing and Security Management Services Inc.	Derek Knights, SunLife Financial
Paul Carson, Garda Vice-president Ontario and Atlantic Canada	John Kopinak, Canadian Association Chiefs of Police Private Sector Liasion Committee
Blair Dunker, Manager, Private Security Investigative Services Branch, Ontario Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services	George Majkut, Director Loss Prevention, The Source By Circuit City
Ken Hanson, Regional Vice-president, G4S Security Services	Brian Robertson, President, Diligent Security Training & Consulting
Corey Hill, Manager Corporate Security, City of London	Lorenzo Rosa, Regional Director, Human Resources, G4S
Minaz Jivraj, Safety and Security Officer, Dufferin Catholic District School Board	Jim Watts, President and CEO Commissionaires Great Lakes, one of 17 divisions of the Commissionaires
Bill Johnson, XCG Security Training and Consulting

Canadian Security Magazine: Individuals are now  responsible for obtaining and maintaining their own licence under the new Act. Ken, can you talk about what G4S’s experience has been to date with this change in the licensing component?

Ken Hanson: At the very least it was very challenging, there’s no question about that. We started the process in mid to-late January with the understanding that this was the first year the employees themselves were responsible for making the application. We made sure we gave them all the assistance they needed. It was very important that any officer in the field who felt they needed to come into the office and get the assistance that they needed.

We went to great lengths to assist them. Even with that, three weeks before the deadline we had much higher-than-average numbers that hadn’t complied yet, and that made our task even more difficult. Some individuals sent in their applications from their home rather than from our office and then they would find out two weeks prior to the deadline that they didn’t have their card yet. We had to give them guidance as to where to do get it rectified. The Ministry was very helpful in assisting us though.
We had to take three or four officers off the schedule this year because they didn’t get their ID cards because the background checks went deeper this year. We had officers that had been in the industry for five or 10 years, but this year they got a letter in the mail and wondered why they couldn’t get a licence. They were asking us, ”˜What about my livelihood? What am I going to do now?’