Sometimes the little guy can beat the government with just a lawyer, even if he doesn't have the figure of an Erin Brokovich.
3-1/2 years ago I started agitating for a strong response form architects in Ontario against a bill, then called Bill 124, which was proposing to make everyone who applies for building permits pass a series of exams, pay fees, maintain insurance, etc. (Sound familiar?)We argued that we already had did all that, and that we were self-regulating under the Architect's Act of Ontario, as were the Engineers under their act. The government argued that they were not deciding who could be an architect or an engineer, just who could apply for permits. (Seriously.)
Leadership at my regulator (OAA) groveled on it's back at the feet of the mighty government like a little urine-soaked puppy. So I started a group with a couple of comrades and took over the regulator in two years, since it is still one architect-one vote, and most practitioners agreed with me that this thing had to be pushed back.
Once we had control of the regulator, we got together with the engineers of the province, took the government to court, and won hands down a couple weeks ago. The court decided that this was duplicate regulation, and that we were exempt as self-regulating professions. The government decided not to appeal last week.
We are still expecting some poison pill by the bureaucrats, who wear most of the embarrassment and pushed for our inclusion in the bill, as they fashion the necessary regulatory changes to extract architects and engineers from "bill124". You can peruse the details on the A2A website: