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Regulatory Law Glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms you will see in letters, notices and decisions from Ontario regulators.

Accreditation Committee: The Ontario College of Pharmacists committee that decides pharmacy certificates of accreditation and can make interim orders about a pharmacy.
Acknowledgement and undertaking: A written promise a professional gives the regulator, often to complete education or accept practice restrictions, usually as part of resolving a matter without a hearing.
Administrative penalty: A monetary penalty imposed by a regulator’s official without a court prosecution, usually with a short window to appeal.
Agreed statement of facts: A document both sides sign at a discipline hearing setting out the facts they accept, so witnesses do not need to be called.

Caution: An oral or written warning from a complaints committee. In the health professions it appears on the public register.
Certificate of authorization: A licence that lets a professional corporation or firm provide professional services, separate from an individual’s licence.
Complaints committee / ICRC: The committee that screens complaints and reports. In the health professions it is the Inquiries, Complaints and Reports Committee (ICRC).
Conditions (terms, conditions and limitations): Restrictions placed on a licence or registration, such as supervision, practice limits or reporting requirements.

Discipline committee or tribunal: The panel that holds a hearing into alleged professional misconduct or incompetence and decides findings and penalties.
Divisional Court: A branch of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that hears appeals and judicial review of many regulatory decisions.

Fitness to practise: A proceeding about whether a professional is incapacitated, for example by a health condition, rather than about misconduct.

HPARB: The Health Professions Appeal and Review Board, which reviews certain health college complaint and registration decisions.

Incapacity: A physical or mental condition that makes it desirable, in the interest of the public, that a professional’s practice be restricted.
Incompetence: A finding that a professional’s care displayed a lack of knowledge, skill or judgment of a nature or extent that shows they are unfit to continue practising, or that their practice should be restricted.
Interim order: A temporary suspension or restriction made before a matter is finally decided, usually to protect the public while an investigation or hearing is pending.

Joint submission: A penalty proposal agreed to by the professional and the regulator and presented to the discipline panel together.
Judicial review: A court application asking whether a decision-maker acted lawfully, fairly and reasonably. It is not a rehearing of the case.

Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT): The tribunal that hears many licensing disputes, including notices of proposal from administrative authorities such as OMVIC, RECO, TICO and the AGCO.

Notice of Proposal: A formal notice that a Registrar intends to refuse, suspend, revoke or attach conditions to a licence, usually with a short deadline to request a hearing.

Professional misconduct: Conduct defined as misconduct by a profession’s statute or regulations, such as breaching standards, dishonesty or sexual abuse of a patient or client.
Proprietary misconduct: Misconduct by a pharmacy owner or operator, as defined in regulations under the Drug and Pharmacies Regulation Act.
Public register: The regulator’s public database of members or licensees. It often includes conditions, discipline outcomes and referrals.

Registrar: The senior official who runs a regulator’s day-to-day licensing and investigation functions and, under many statutes, issues proposals.
Registrar’s investigation: An investigation the Registrar starts on their own initiative, without a complaint, when there are reasonable grounds.
Reprimand: A formal rebuke delivered by a discipline panel, often in person, and usually recorded publicly.
Revocation: Cancellation of a licence or registration.

SCERP: A Specified Continuing Education or Remedial Program, which a health college complaints committee can require.
Service: Formal delivery of a notice. Many deadlines run from the date of service, and registered mail is often deemed served a set number of days after mailing.
Show cause: An opportunity to explain why a proposed action should not be taken. For example, it applies before the Registrar under the security guard and private investigator licensing statute.
Stay: An order pausing the effect of a decision while it is appealed or reviewed.
Suspension: A temporary loss of the right to practise or operate.

Temporary suspension order: An immediate suspension a Registrar can make, in the public interest, when proposing to suspend or revoke a registration.

Terms