Dialogue Volume 11 Issue 2 2015 | Page 28

TRAnsparency The College’s mandate is public protection, whether information is public or not. We will continue to ensure that physicians are safe to practise. Dr. Gerace pointed out that the Transparency Initiative is not meant to shift the onus onto the public to protect itself. “The College’s mandate is public protection, whether information is public or not. We will continue to ensure that physicians are safe to practise. We have many processes to ensure that if there are risks to the public, physician practice is limited or stopped. The purpose of providing greater transparency is to ensure that the public has information to make decisions based on their values and to demonstrate the regulatory actions taken by the College in cases where potential risk was identified.” Given the importance of the issues, the by-law consultation was open from December 2014 to April 2015, considerably longer than the required 60-day by-law consultation period. “We knew that these were significant issues and we wanted to provide a meaningful opportunity for both physicians and members of the public to respond,” said Dr. Leet. For the most part, Council