In January 2026, employers in Ontario, Canada, will face sweeping new requirements designed to make recruitment more transparent and accountable. While the laws are local to Canada, they raise some interesting questions about how Australia may need to evolve its own hiring practices.
What Ontario’s Law Will Require
From 1 January 2026, Ontario employers with 25+ staff must:
- Respond to interviewed candidates within 45 days, either with a decision or a clear update (to combat “candidate ghosting”).
- Disclose salary or salary ranges in job ads, with restrictions to prevent unreasonably wide ranges.
- State whether a role is genuinely open or just “proactive hiring” (so-called “ghost jobs”).
- Disclose if AI is being used in candidate screening or selection.
- Remove “Canadian experience” as a job requirement, making recruitment more inclusive for migrants and internationally trained workers.
- Retain job posting and application records for three years.
The aim is to give candidates greater clarity, reduce unfair barriers, and ensure employers are accountable for the promises made during recruitment.
Why This Matters for Australia
While Australia has its own framework under the Fair Work Act and discrimination laws, many of these issues sound familiar:
- Ghosting: A common complaint among Australian candidates, particularly in high-volume recruitment industries.
- Pay transparency: Still debated locally. Only a handful of Australian employers voluntarily disclose salary ranges, even though transparency is linked to trust and improved diversity outcomes.
- Ghost jobs: Similar concerns exist here, where ads may be posted for pipeline-building rather than immediate vacancies.
- AI in recruitment: Australia has no mandatory disclosure laws yet, despite growing use of AI tools to screen CVs or rank candidates.
- Experience bias: While employers rarely demand “Australian experience” outright, there are parallels in how overseas-trained professionals can struggle to enter the workforce.
Potential Impact if Adopted in Australia
If such laws were mirrored here, the impact would be significant. Recruitment agencies and employers would need to:
- Formalise communication protocols to ensure timely feedback to candidates.
- Revise job ad templates to include pay transparency and vacancy status.
- Audit hiring tech to ensure AI usage is clearly disclosed.
- Strengthen record-keeping and compliance frameworks.
For candidates, it would mean greater transparency, less wasted time, and fewer barriers for international talent. For employers, it could create short-term admin challenges but improve long-term trust and employer branding.
A Discussion Point for Recruiters
Should Australia consider similar measures? The Ontario model puts candidate experience and fairness at the centre of hiring practices. With talent shortages still present in key industries, adopting greater transparency could strengthen Australia’s recruitment market — but it also risks adding new compliance costs for businesses already navigating complex employment laws.
As the global workforce becomes more mobile and digital, Australia will need to decide how far it wants to follow international examples like Ontario in regulating the hiring process.
