Legislating collaborative self-regulation in Canada: A comparative policy analysis

To encourage interprofessional collaboration and to improve the regulation of healthcare providers, Ontario and Nova Scotia, Canada, have each adopted legislation calling for collaboration among the regulators of their self-regulating health professions. Ontario's legislation is "top down": it came from government and stresses the obligation of regulators to collaborate. Nova Scotia's legislation is "bottom up": it was proposed and developed by regulators and emphasizes voluntary regulatory collaboration. This article considers the theoretical strengths and weaknesses of both models. It argues that Nova Scotia's approach may be stronger because of its relative consistency with core strengths of self-regulation and interprofessionalism and its grounding in soft law and a governance approach to collaborative self-regulation and to healthcare policy more broadly.