Welcome to RCC

April 4, 2007

Ms. Cheryl Mahyr
Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services
25 Grosvenor Street, 13th Floor
Toronto, ON M7A 1Y6
VIA E-MAIL (jus.g.sgcs.webmaster@ontario.ca)

Dear Ms. Mahyr:
On behalf of Retail Council of Canada (RCC) and its members operating in Ontario, I am writing in response to the recent invitation to comment on three draft regulations posted under Bill 159, Private Security and Investigative Services Act (the Act).

As a member of the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Advisory Committee on the Act, RCC has enjoyed the opportunity to work together with other key stakeholders to provide expertise and advice to the government towards the development of these regulations. Indeed, this is very important work and we are deeply committed to providing the government with our responsible and credible expertise and advice on a broad range of areas.

We look forward to continuing the dialogue with the Ministry over the coming months on the development of future regulations and towards smooth implementation of the standards to ensure that they support the needs of the community as well as retailers.

Vehicles
The regulation proposes that:

2. A licensee shall not use a vehicle in the provision of security guard services that is not in compliance with this Regulation.

Retail loss prevention personnel that require a license under the definition of security guard in the Act (sec. 4) do not utilize vehicles in the function of their duties. As such, we have no comment on the proposed Vehicle regulation.

Clean Criminal Record
The regulation prescribes a number of offences which, if convicted of, would prevent a person from being granted a license.

As most retailers require an absolutely clean criminal record as a condition for hire, the prescription of certain offences is not a concern. As such, we have no comment.

Code of Conduct
Retailers make significant investments in promoting and marketing their company and would not risk an incident that would adversely affect public perception. Having all interaction between the retailer and a culprit managed in a professional manner is ingrained into the training and philosophy of the retail approach to loss prevention. The 2004 Canadian Retail Security Report identified that 100 per cent of the retailers questioned had established a Code of Ethics or Standard of Conduct. As such, RCC and its members support the extension of a Code of Conduct to all security personnel operating within the province.

With respect to section 2., Individual Licensees, the proposed regulation states that:

2. (2) No individual licensee shall,
(d) misrepresent to any person the type, class or conditions of his or her license.

The issue of security guards having to display their license was discussed at several meetings of the Minister's Advisory Committee. Our proposal, which had support at the committee level, was that only uniformed security guards be required to display their license. Private investigators and non-uniformed security guards such as loss prevention personnel would be an exception to this rule in order to protect themselves and mitigate the risk to their operations. RCC respectfully requests confirmation that failure to produce a license by a non-uniformed security guard is not considered misrepresentation for the purposes of section 2.

Section 3., Business entity licensees, does not apply to the members of RCC as retailers are not in the business of selling security guard or private investigator services. Retailers are considered regulated business entities and not licensed business entities. As such, we have no comment.

Once again, thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed regulations under Bill 159, Private Security and Investigative Services Act. If you require further information or clarification, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at (416) 922-0553 extension 225.

Yours truly,

Ashley McClinton
Director, Government Relations (Ontario)

cc: Mr. Jon Herberman, Registrar/Director, Private Investigators and Security Guards Branch, Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services