Organizations are dynamic; they grow and change with emerging and evolving needs. What the public needs and expects from its regulators is always evolving, so our governing body and structures must also continually evolve to best serve the public.

Bill 30, the Health Statutes Amendments Act, 2020, came into force on July 29, 2020. This legislation amends several existing Acts, including the Health Professions Act (HPA), whose amendments will come into force April 1, 2021. Bill 30 will increase the required percentage of public members from at least 25% to at least 50% on colleges’ governing councils, hearing tribunals and complaint review committees.

This seemingly minor change will dramatically impact all health regulatory colleges:

• The public will have an equal or greater say in regulating the health professions.
• Colleges will have to adjust the size of their governing councils to accommodate the new public members.
• Tribunals made up of a majority of members of the profession will no longer decide discipline cases. 50% or more of the members of these tribunals will be members of the public.
• Committees that review decisions to dismiss complaints will also have 50% or more public members.

Council has updated the bylaws to incorporate changes to the legislation and best practice in governance. Key themes are provided below.

New composition of Council

College bylaws have been amended to provide a new composition of Council as per Bill 30. There are currently 8 regulated members on Council. Best practice is to have 10 to 12 Council members, so the College has decided to reduce the number of regulated members on Council rather than greatly increasing the size of Council to accommodate the required new public members. The new composition of Council will allow us to continue to have representation from each of the five specialties we currently regulate as well as diagnostic medical sonographers (DMSs) once that legislation takes effect.

Moving from competency-based elections to competency-based appointments

Council members who are medical radiation technologists (MRTs) and electroneurophysiology technologists (ENPs) will no longer be volunteers who are elected by their peers. Instead, they will be appointed based on specific attributes and competencies: their experience, knowledge and skills.

Why? The decision to move from elections to appointments was a serious one. Ultimately, it was based on two key things. First, elections create the potential for misunderstanding, because MRTs and ENPs elected to the governing body do not serve those that elected them — they serve the public. Second, appointments based on competencies ensure that Council comprises a diverse group of people with a wide range of expertise and skills, extensive knowledge and different perspectives. Succession planning is crucial to effective governance — an appointment process supports succession planning, while an election process does not.

Council has approved moving away from the current competency-based election process for new regulated Council members to a competency-based appointment process, effective 2022. The current Nominations Committee has been folded into an expanded Nominations and Appointments Committee to carry out this work. Council will publish the competencies and the details of the new appointment process after it has been finalized later in 2021.