The College of Complementary Health Professionals is updating its fee structure in the 2025-2026 fiscal year

Under the updated fee schedule, naturopathic physicians will pay an initial application fee for a certification, but they will not pay to renew it annually, as it will now be included within annual licensing/registration renewal fees.    

Naturopathic physicians will no longer pay separate fees to renew their certifications; rather, certified practice will be covered as part of naturopathic physicians licensing fee. This will simplify the renewal process, eliminating naturopathic physicians’ need to renew individual certifications, and instead naturopathic physicians need to only renew their license to practise on an ongoing basis.  

This decision comes after analyzing CCHPBC’s per-activity charges. While there are costs associated with reviewing, processing, and granting initial applications for certifications, there is no way to distinguish, from a cost-recovery basis, between licensing renewal fees and certification renewal fees. 

Additionally, it is estimated that each naturopathic physician pays an average of $256 in certification fees annually. Under the updated fee schedule, naturopathic physicians’ certification fees will be included as part of their licensing fee.  

In the past, newly graduated chiropractors with conferred dates pre-dating up to three years from initial registration received discounts to full registration and renewal fees.  

Under the new fee schedule, all licensees will pay a consistent registration and renewal fee structure. This means that full registration and renewal fees will not be discounted for chiropractors going forward.  

A decision to remove the discounted registration and renewal fee structure for chiropractors was determined after a review of the lack of cost differential, as the cost of regulation does not vary between new and tenured licensees.

The college determined that restructuring fees is necessary to ensure that CCHPBC can continue to fulfil its regulatory responsibilities. Several factors informed the decision to update fees, including:  

• a review of the college’s long-term cost structure, and a fee schedule that reflects the cost of regulation, 

• the need for a simplified, consistent, and equitable fee structure across the professions, 

• sustainable resources to fund the rising costs of regulation, regulatory modernization, the Health Professions and Occupations Regulatory Oversight Office, and the requirements of the Health Professions and Occupations Act (HPOA), 

• anti-discrimination capacity building within CCHPBC’s administration of regulatory activities (licensure, quality assurance, and investigations), as well as anti-discrimination resources for registrants. 

The determination to restructure fees was solely based on reflecting the cost of regulation, as well as the factors that influence the rising cost of regulation including adopting regulatory requirements under the Health Professions and Occupations Act.  
 
The goal of restructuring fees is to provide a simplified, consistent, and fair fee structure across the professions that will sustainably fund the college’s ongoing regulatory costs, and one that reflects the cost of regulation by profession. Among the factors considered in determining the revised fee structure were the college’s long-term cost structure, adjustments to revenue requirements, an inventory and review of all per-activity charges (i.e., examinations), and a review of how to fairly and equitably allocate licensing fees across professions. This review was predicated on each professions’ proportional draw on regulatory resources (licensure, quality assurance, and compliance), which ensures that more resource intensive professions contribute proportionally more to shared expenses.   

No. As a non-profit organization, CCHPBC is precluded from making money off licensees. The ultimate objective of the college is to operate on a cost-recovery basis, meaning long-term revenues should approximate long-term costs.   

The determination to restructure fees was solely based on reflecting the cost of regulation, as well as the factors that influence the rising cost of regulation, including adopting regulatory requirements under the Health Professions and Occupations Act.  

Restructuring fees ensures that the college obtains sustainable funding to maintain consistent regulatory quality across all disciplines while building reserves for unexpected challenges, market changes, and new regulatory requirements.

CCHPBC is implementing a harmonized registration renewal period. Licensees renewing or registering with the college in 2026-2027, as well as those who have yet to renew in 2025, will pay the new renewal/registration fees on a prorated basis to align with the harmonized licensing period. 
 
To lessen the financial impact of the restructured fee schedule, CCHPBC has broken out increased financial contributions for registration renewal fees into two stages over a prolonged period. 
 
As with all registration renewal periods, CCHPBC will notify licensees in advance of their renewal deadline.

The restructured fees will provide:
  

• technological improvements, including an integrated licensee management software system (a single database for all licensee), 

• the development of a harmonized quality assurance program, and renewal and registration processes,  

• sustainable funding for the newly established Health Professions and Occupations Regulatory Oversight Office,   

• anti-discrimination and anti-racist capacity building within CCHPBC’s administration of regulatory activities (licensure, quality assurance, and investigations), as well as anti-discrimination resources for licensees.  

Under the new fee schedule, all licensees will pay a consistent registration and renewal fee structure.   

This means that full registration and renewal fees will no longer be discounted for chiropractors who graduated within the past three years of their initial registration with the College. A decision to remove the discounted registration and renewal fee structure for chiropractors was determined after an analysis of the lack of cost differential, as the cost of regulation does not vary between new and tenured licensees. 

Under the updated fee schedule, naturopathic physicians will pay an initial application fee for a certification, but they will not pay to renew it annually, as it will now be included within annual licensing/registration renewal fees.    

Naturopathic physicians will no longer pay separate fees to renew their certifications; rather, certified practice will be covered as part of naturopathic physicians licensing fee. This will simplify the renewal process, eliminating naturopathic physicians’ need to renew individual certifications, and instead naturopathic physicians need to only renew their license to practise on an ongoing basis.  

This decision comes after analyzing CCHPBC’s per-activity charges. While there are costs associated with reviewing, processing, and granting initial applications for certifications, there is no way to distinguish, from a cost-recovery basis, between licensing renewal fees and certification renewal fees. 

Additionally, it is estimated that each naturopathic physician pays an average of $256 in certification fees annually. Under the updated fee schedule, naturopathic physicians’ certification fees will be included as part of their licensing fee. 

The goal of restructuring fees is to provide a simplified, consistent, and fair fee structure across the professions that will sustainably fund the college’s ongoing regulatory costs, and one that reflects the cost of regulation by profession. To translate these allocations into actual fee amounts, the college calculates weighted averages reflecting each profession’s draw on licensure, quality assurance, and compliance costs, ensuring that more resource-intensive professions contribute proportionately more to shared expenses.  
 
For example, while naturopathic physicians represent a smaller share of the licensee base, they account for a much higher proportion of resolved complaints. The result is an annual licensing fee structure that not only recovers the full cost of regulation, but also aligns fees with principles of equity, transparency, and market fairness, while minimizing cross-subsidization between professions.

Prior to amalgamation, legacy colleges had variations in their licensing processes and schedules that were carried over to CCHPBC.  

During amalgamation, it was a priority for CCHPBC to reorganize the renewal schedules of legacy colleges into a single new schedule that was fair and consistent.

Under the new schedule, the annual deadline for renewal will be March 31. The goal is to have all licensees on a harmonized renewal schedule by March 31, 2027. This date will provide licensees with a consistent processing period that also aligns with the college’s fiscal year. 

Practice hours are an important indication of currency to ensure practitioners’ continued ability to practise safely and competently. The public needs to be able to trust that their practitioner is competent and safe to practice in a dynamic and continually evolving healthcare environment. Practice hours are a minimum requirement; most full-time practitioners vastly exceed the amount required.

No, they are not a new requirement. Practice hours requirements were first announced in 2023. Massage therapists have been required to track and document their practice hours since December 2023.

The College is satisfied that 500 hours over three years is sufficient to ensure currency of practice, while still being achievable by massage therapists working part-time or taking a break from practice (for example, parental leave) during the three-year period. Additionally, the requirement for 500 practice hours over three years was based in part on labour mobility considerations.

The College was able to rely on information gathered from registrants through a voluntary survey conducted in 2019. The purpose of this survey was to gather information about massage therapists’ practices to help inform the new Quality Assurance program. The survey gathered information on the reasons why massage therapists’ used non-practising status, the length of time massage therapists’ held non-practising status, and massage therapists’ patient care volumes. Most commonly, massage therapists’ used non-practising status for parental leave, for a length of time of approximately one year.

When asked about their patient care volumes, massage therapists’ reported treating an average of 11-30 patients a week, which at 11 patients per week at one hour/session, would result in 1,716 hours over a three year period, over three times the minimum threshold required by the College.

The non-practising registration category will not continue past March 31, 2027. It is not required under the HPOA and the College determined that it does not provide added benefit to the public or registrants (licensees) in terms of public safety or efficiencies.

Currently, only approximately 300 of over 13,000 CCHPBC registrants are registered as non-practising. As there are no clear advantages for either the public or licensees, the College made the decision to harmonize the licensure classes and remove this particular class. Non-practising registrants will have until March 31, 2027 to convert to a full license or to give up their license (should that be their choice).

The process to reinstate your registration from a non-practising registration status or as a former registrant within 3 years of absence from practice are the same. Under the restructured fee schedule, there is no significant monetary barrier to reinstatement.

Licensees (registrants) have the option to maintain their full registration during short absences from practice. If they anticipate being away from practice for a longer period, they may choose to cancel their license and apply for reinstatement when they are ready to return. Within the HPOA Bylaws, the College has designed a streamlined reinstatement process for those professionals who were full licensees of the College within the past 3 years.