Notice to the Profession: Licence renewal is legally required

For many personal licensees and operators of funeral establishments and transfer services, this notice will be a “yeah, did that already” item.

This notice is for those who have not yet renewed their licence with the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO).

The deadline for licence renewal was extended to Jan. 15, but it doesn’t mean you should wait that long. We emphasize this because delaying your renewal only puts you at the risk of being late.

If you are late in renewing, your licence will expire. If you provide or offer to provide any licensed services with an expired licence, you will be operating illegally, and you and/or your business will be subject to sanctions by the BAO. In effect, you will be shut down until your licence is renewed. Late fees will apply.

The common explanations given by our licensees for failure to renew include:

• They forgot
• They thought their manager was doing this on their behalf
• The manager or employer forgot
• Poor internet connections

Solutions
 
The solution to forgetting is realizing that without a current licence you cannot legally operate as a business nor perform duties requiring that licence. Such a lapse jeopardizes your business and your customers, the grieving families who rely on you. Put it in your calendar. We want you to remain in business and legally serving grieving families as professionals.
 
For those whose employer pays their personal licensing renewal fee, please check with your manager/employer as to whether your licence has been renewed. If your employer has applied a payment credit for your individual licence renewal, that does not mean that your licence has been renewed. 

Once you have received an email from the BAO confirming that a credit has been applied, you will also still have to log in to the Licensee Portal and renew your licence. When you reach the payment section of your online renewal application, select “Individual Renewal Credit” from the “payment type” drop-down list to apply the credit. Payment is one of two requirements to renew your licence.
 
Renew or check on your licence status on the BAO portal here.