Regulating Professions in Canada: Interprovincial Differences across Five Provinces

Abstract

This essay looks at the regulation of professions in five Canadian provinces—Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia—from Confederation to 1961 to examine the ways in which professional regulation has historically varied across locale. Interprovincial variations in the timing and content of legislation regulating professions are examined, and explanations for these variations are explored. Overall, the study finds that although there was a core group of professions regulated in all five provinces, there is significant variation across the provinces with respect to which professions were regulated, and when and how they were regulated. Such variations may be partly explained by differential rates in occupational growth, differences in professional organization and interprofessional conflict, and population density.