The Ontario government is proposing changes to streamline vulnerable sector police record checks in an effort to reduce wait times for people seeking jobs or volunteer positions working with children, seniors and people with disabilities.
The proposed amendments, announced as part of an upcoming legislative package, would modify the province’s Police Record Checks Reform Act to allow designated police services to process vulnerable sector checks for applicants who live outside their local jurisdiction.
"When those checks take weeks or months, the impact is real," Solicitor General Michael Kerzner said at Barrie Police headquarters during Thursday's announcement. "It can delay hiring, it can slow access to critical services, it can prevent people from volunteering. They are essential to ensure that those who will be working or volunteering with vulnerable people are carefully screened."
Vulnerable sector checks require more detailed screening than standard police record checks, often leading to longer processing times for applicants due to sheer volume of demand.
"It would impact the person who wanted to volunteer for their kids coaching at school or something like that," Barrie Police Chief Rich Johnston told Barrie360. "And organizations that we want to see way more people volunteer for because it makes our community better."
Under the proposed changes, designated police services would be able to assist with processing during periods of high demand, regardless of where the applicant lives in Ontario.
The province said implementation would require coordination with federal partners, including the RCMP and Public Safety Canada, to provide designated police services with access to federal databases. Those police services would then be able to work together using that information to process the check across multiple jurisdictions.
Kerzner says cross-jurisdiction co-operation does not pose any risks to an applicant because the services would be following the same processes currently in place.
"Protections will remain in place and safeguarding vulnerable people will continue to be the highest priority," Kerzner added. "This is about reducing wait times."
Ontario police services process more than one million police record checks each year, with more than 70 per cent categorized as vulnerable sector checks.
In Barrie, a total of just under 14,000 criminal record checks were processed in 2025, with 11,354 of them categorized in the vulnerable sector.
"These numbers have been increasing year after year," Johnston said. "Applicants included people starting new jobs, such as teachers, early childhood educators or personal support workers... The process of obtaining a criminal record or vulnerable sector check can sometimes be lengthy. But it's absolutely necessary to have a record of the number of people who are needed of protect members of our community."
Johnston says the average criminal record check in Barrie takes 14 days to be returned to the applicant, while those in the vulnerable sector category take longer.
"We know the impact that a delay can have on an applicant," he said. "Because vulnerable sector check applicants have the potential to require additional follow-up, such as attending their local police station to have their fingerprints taken."
Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) president and CEO Gail Hunt said modernizing the system could help hospitals, among other large operations, reduce hiring delays while maintaining safety standards.
"In some cases, patient access to care can be affected if we're delayed filling a role immediately because administrative processes cannot keep pace with demand," she said.
"By bringing in this piece of legislation and by going forward with our regulations, we want to make sure make sure make sure make record check anywhere in the province," Kerzner added. "You are going to get it with certainty so you can go about volunteering or having a job."
Kerzner says the changes will be introduced in the Ontario legislature in the coming weeks.
