Professional Regulation and Change in Times of Crisis: Differing Opportunities Within and Across Ecologies

Abstract

This paper analyses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis on professional regulatory change in two Canadian provinces, drawing on ecological theory. The dataset, constructed using web-scraping techniques, includes all laws and by-law modifications concerning regulated professions enacted during the first 18 months of the pandemic in Quebec and British Columbia. Data show that the crisis prompted regulatory changes but that the impact and nature of these changes varied depending on the structure of the ecology of professional regulation in each province. Furthermore, crisis-related concerns were more likely to induce or accelerate durable changes if they intersected with pre-existing, ongoing professional projects. Our findings have implications for theorizing crisis-related regulatory change and demonstrate the value of a comparative approach to studying professional ecologies and state-profession interfaces.