Ontario: In May 2005, Ontario’s Private Security and Investigative Services Act (PSISA) had just received Second Reading at Queen’s Park. In December 2005, it received third and final reading, although much of the Act remains unproclaimed. In March and April of this year — as a result of a year-and-a-half of consultations between Ministry staff and industry representatives on the Private Security and Investigative Services Advisory Committee (PSISAC) — the province was able to release drafts of the first six set of regulations which are proposed to be adopted under PSISA. These include regulations which will establish a code of conduct for licensees under the Act, as well as some of the most detailed regulations yet drafted in a Canadian jurisdiction to address the issue of use of dogs by licensed security personnel. There are big changes coming under PSISA in Ontario, including the licensing of proprietary security, retail LPOs, bouncers, bodyguards, and in-house private investigators. But it is still unclear how soon these provisions will come into force. There will be mandatory training for various categories of licensed personnel under PSISA. Thanks in part to the findings of the Patrick Shand inquest, the training requirement for at least some security personnel will include physical skills training on arrest and control tactics. However, Ontario Registrar Jon Herberman has recently indicated that the specific curriculum for mandatory training, as well as the specific mechanisms for training delivery, have yet to be established.

Manitoba: In December 2005, Manitoba’s Legislative Assembly also passed its new legislation, in the form of the Private Investigators and Security Guards Amendment Act, although the provisions under this Act did not finally come into force until January of this year. However, when they did come into force, Manitoba became the first province in Canada to impose a licensing requirement on proprietary security personnel (including retail loss prevention officers), as well as the fourth province in Canada to impose a mandatory training requirement for security patrol personnel based on the training standard for security guards set down by the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB). Although a brief six-month implementation phase has been permitted, the requirement that proprietary personnel be licensed will start being enforced this summer.

British Columbia: B.C. released the first draft of it’s new legislation for public comment in October 2002. In early March, the four-and-a-half-year wait for legislation to arrive on the floor of the B.C. legislature came to an end with the first and second readings of the new Security Services Act. This legislation encompasses many of the key reforms which were proposed in the province’s 2002 discussion papers, reforms which are now common to new legislation in other provinces as well. B.C. plans to licence not just proprietary security officers, but also retail loss prevention officers, bouncers, and in-house private investigators. B.C. also plans to repeal its long-standing prohibition on the use of handcuffs by licensed security personnel.

Alberta: In May 2006, Alberta had just set up a review committee of the legislature to take a look at private security regulation in that province. After a year-and-a-half of industry consultations, that committee officially released its final report and recommendations in early March of this year. The province has indicated its intention to move toward the introduction of new legislation in the fall, and has asked industry representatives to submit written comments on the recently-released report and recommendations by the end of May. Although the recommendations for regulatory reform in Alberta do not cover as many sectors as are captured in some other provinces (Alberta does not, for instance, appear to be considering licensing bouncers as security personnel), some of the measures that the province is considering are quite ground-breaking. These include licensing retail loss prevention officers in a category separate from both security guards and private investigators, and licensing alarm response personnel who work for otherwise unregulated alarm service businesses.

Nova Scotia: After what had seemed to many security industry veterans like decades of informal discussions, the province released a discussion paper on regulatory reform at the end of January and sought fairly specific industry feedback on the issues it raises. Nova Scotia’s discussion paper is similar to the discussion paper Ontario released in 2003. It is offered as a stimulus to dialogue but is worded in a manner which strongly “telegraphs” the directions in which the province already knows that it wants to go. As regulatory reform packages go, it is fairly broad-sweeping. The province clearly intends to do what most other provinces have done by imposing both licensing and mandatory training requirements on proprietary personnel, retail LPOs, and bouncers. However, the province also appears to be interested in imposing licensing on security technology businesses like alarm companies — something which only B.C. presently does and which only Quebec proposes to start doing.

Quebec: In May 2005, Quebec’s new Private Security Act had received first reading. It was a year later, in June of 2006, when the legislation passed. Now, a year later, the legislation has yet to be proclaimed and brought into force. However, just last month information was released regarding which Quebec security industry associations have been selected by the Minister to make appointments to the board of directors of le Bureau de la sécurité privée. Seven associations representing seven sectors will appoint representatives to occupy seven out of the eleven seats on what will be the first ever provincial security industry licensing board in Canada. Once the first board of directors starts to meet, they will immediately become involved in advising the Minister on what the content of the regulations under the Act should be. Many of the provincial security statutes that are now being replaced across the country have been in place, unchanged, for 25 to 35 years. There will be significant changes occurring in most provinces on an on-going basis for most of the next five to 10 years. Stay tuned. ”¢

Brian Robertson is a member of, and national regulatory affairs advisor with the national Board of Directors of the Canadian Society for Industrial Security.