Service

Professional Licence Verification — Canada

Short answer

Professional licence verification confirms whether a person is a registrant in good standing with the relevant Canadian regulator and retrieves their public discipline history. Most provincial regulators publish free searchable registers; Sleuthify queries them together and cross-checks the corporate entity operating behind the practice.

Draws on 6 record sources, each named below with the statutory basis we rely on. See the list.

Run a free scanRecords Report $249 · Typically 20 minutes, guaranteed under 4 hours

Regulators publish more than you'd expect

Canadian self-governing professions publish a public register as a statutory obligation, and those registers routinely disclose current status, year of licensure, practice restrictions, business address, and a summary of discipline history including reprimands and suspensions. This is one of the highest-signal free sources available, and it falls squarely within PIPEDA's professional-directory category.

The mismatch that matters

The most common finding is not an unlicensed person — it is a real licence held by someone other than the person you are dealing with, or a licence in a related but different category. A firm's principal is licensed while the person doing your work is not. A brokerage is registered while the individual agent lapsed. Checking the individual and the entity separately catches this; checking only one does not.

What you receive

In the report

Current registration status and licence category
Year first licensed and any gaps in registration
Practice restrictions, conditions, or undertakings
Published discipline decisions, reprimands, and suspensions
The corporate entity registered behind the practice, cross-checked in the registry

Honest limits

What verify professional licence canada will not tell you

Every item here is a structural limit of the Canadian record, not a paywall. Anyone promising you these is either misrepresenting what they have or describing something unlawful.

Only regulated professions have public registers
Discipline publication policies vary by regulator and by era
Complaints that did not proceed to a hearing are generally not published
Unregulated trades may have no verifiable credential at all

6 connectors

Sources this search queries

Each source carries the paragraph of the Regulations Specifying Publicly Available Information that permits collecting from it without the subject's consent.

ONLaw Society of Ontario — Lawyer and Paralegal Directory
Law Society of Ontario
Lawful basisProfessional or business directorySOR/2001-7(b)
Public web form · No search fee
ONCollege of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario — Doctor Search
CPSO
Lawful basisProfessional or business directorySOR/2001-7(b)
Public web form · No search fee
ONRECO — Real Estate Council of Ontario Registrant Search
RECO
Lawful basisProfessional or business directorySOR/2001-7(b)
Public web form · No search fee
ONOntario Securities Commission — Enforcement Proceedings
OSC
Lawful basisStatutory public registrySOR/2001-7(c)
Public web form · No search fee
CACorporations Canada — Federal Corporation Search
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
Lawful basisStatutory public registrySOR/2001-7(c)
Public web form · No search fee
INTLWeb search and fetch (Claude server-side tools)
Anthropic
Lawful basisPublished by the individualSOR/2001-7(e)
API · No search fee

Every source we operate, with fees and coverage

Figures

Numbers worth quoting

Each figure carries its source and the date it was current.
Measure	Value	Source	As of
Regulated professions with public registers in Ontario alone	40+	Government of Ontario	2026

Registry fees and coverage change. Figures are stated as of the date shown, not as a standing guarantee.

Questions

verify professional licence canada — common questions

How do I check if a lawyer is licensed in Canada?

Search the law society register for the relevant province — the Law Society of Ontario, the Law Society of British Columbia, and their counterparts all publish free public directories. These show current status, year of call, and conduct history. If someone claims to be a lawyer and does not appear, that is conclusive.

Can I see a Canadian professional's discipline history?

Usually yes, for regulated professions. Most Canadian regulators publish discipline decisions and note findings on the public register. Coverage of older matters varies and complaints that did not reach a hearing are typically not published, so an empty discipline record means no published finding rather than no complaint.

Is my contractor licensed in Ontario?

It depends on the trade. Electricians and gas fitters are licensed and verifiable; general contractors and renovators largely are not, which surprises most homeowners. What you can verify is the corporate registration, whether the business has liens or judgments against it, and whether WSIB coverage is current. Absence of a licence is often not a red flag because no licence exists to hold.

Next step

See what the public record has — free

We tell you how many records match, where they are, and whether a full report is worth buying. No credit card.

Run a free scan How it works

Markdown /services/professional-licence-verification.md — the same content with no navigation chrome, for machine readers.